M&C Saatchi and media agency the7stars are reported to be launching a new agency M&C7: “to help clients align their media and creative thinking.” M&C London CEO Giles Hedger and the7stars co-founder Jenny Biggam are in charge.
Creative agencies have been flirting with media recently, most notably The&Partnership’s fully-fledged m/SIX, which benefits from WPP’s GroupM negotiating clout. Mullen Lowe has a MediaHub operation and there are others.
M&C recently sold its remaining stake in Blue449 (formerly Walker Media) for a hefty £25m, so you can see there attraction there.
The7stars is a media success story, the only independent to invade the UK top ten. Some shareholders there are believed to be tempted by the prospect of a sale but co-founder Biggam wishes to stay independent.
The M&C deal may be a neat way of resolving this.
