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Interpublic (IPG) is believed to be launching Rapport, its successful UK out of home specialist, in America as soon as its current contract with WPP’s Kinetic expires.
The move follows hard on the heels on revelations (here) that Eric Newnham’s new out of home agency Talon is being backed by Omnicom Media Group.
OMG’s interest in Talon and IPG’s plans for Rapport mean that there are now four potential global players in the worldwide out of home market after years when the market was carved up between WPP’s Kinetic and Aegis’ Posterscope.
Rapport, formerly IPM and run by CEO Roy Jeans, is the third force in UK OOH specialists with about 15 per cent of the market with billings of £95m. However it is less dependent than either Kinetic or Posterscope on billings from media agencies with IPG’s two media agencies Universal Media and Initiative accounting for only about 20 per cent of the business.
It handles Sky (£36m) and Samsung (£19m), the UK’s two biggest poster spenders direct which gives it a client-friendly platform to challenge Kinetic, Posterscope and Talon. The UK is still the biggest market for poster specialists.
In the US Kinetic won IPG’s poster business from IPG’s Outdoor Advertising Group in a move which caused some disquiet at IPG as it gave WPP-owned Kinetic access to IPG clients. The deal was brokered by Nick Brien, recently-departed head of McCann and before that head of IPG Mediabrands, the company’s media holding company.
One-time IPM managing director Mike Cooper (left) has been despatched to the US to set up Rapport there. It’s likely that the company will be rapidly rolled out to other markets
