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In the world of media agencies, following the tectonic changes at the end of last year, consolidation, whether large or small – in this case, mid-sized – continues apace.
GroupM has continued to centralize its operations at the global corporate level, with global brand CEOs taking on roles across the company – at least those who haven’t left the company yet.
While one in-house executive insists this is not the beginning of the end for the individual brands within GroupM – Mindshare, Wavemaker and EssenceMediacom – the moves signal a simplification that more easily allows small, client-focused businesses to create where needed, sometimes across agency. brands. GroupM declined to comment on the record.
Specifically, Mindshare Global CEO Adam Gerhart has been named GroupM’s Global Client Director, tasked with overseeing key accounts and client engagement strategy across all agencies worldwide and coordinating with parent WPP.
Tony Jenner, Global CEO of Wavemaker, becomes Global Commercial Director, leading integration projects across WPP while driving business growth and development.
And Mark Patterson, who was global COO, now transitions to global president, markets and business operations, in charge of expanding APAC and LATAM markets and expanding offshore entertainment and sports capabilities.
Replacing him as global COO is McKinsey executive Emily Del Greco, who joins in February and will naturally report to GroupM’s global CEO Brian Lesser, who is ultimately the architect of these changes. Del Greco will be charged with making many operational adjustments and strategic adjustments while overseeing the activation and investment practices.
(It should be noted that Nick Lawson, global CEO of EssenceMediacom, left the company in December.)
The GroupM source would not say whether Del Greco or McKinsey had worked with GroupM before it was hired. Regardless, one observer believes the lease and consolidation is a smart move. “The news is really positive for GroupM, not only by bringing Emily on board, but also because it reduces the overhead associated with individual brands and hopefully helps support more centralized decision-making,” said Madison & Wall analyst Brian Wieser.
It can’t be a coincidence that this is also happening within a few weeks Omnicom acquires IPG and Publicis merging its creative brands into a centralized operation. A GroupM source, who declined to be credited, said it would be going too far to read this as the start of a collapse of the brands – as WPP has done with several of its creative agencies over the years.
“All agencies are about serving their clients and really owning the client context and the client strategy,” the source said. “What we do is create standardized activation processes and a technology platform that these teams customize and use for each client. That’s just down the road from the world two years ago, when each agency had its own unique technology stack and competed as a separate business.”
However, Forrester vice president and principal analyst at the agency Jay Pattisall sees a similar drive to consolidate in a similar fashion to rival holding companies.
“It’s probably a response to the success of both Publicis Media and Omnicom Media Group as they both go into the media market at the holding company level,” Pattisall said. “You can also see this strategy in the creative within VML, the merger of Leo Burnett and Publicis Worldwide, as well as the creation of Omnicom Advertising Group. These moves, including GroupM’s centralization play, illustrate how agencies are evolving to meet marketers’ needs for more comprehensive marketing solutions services through teams of specialists.”
Developing and simplifying their offer. But as GroupM’s source noted, some of these agency brands have strength in different regions around the world — which has something to do with why they haven’t disappeared.
Still.