Omnicom is centralising its creative agencies under TBWA leadership in a new entity Omnicom Advertising Group (OAG.) This mirrors its media entity OMG. OAG will be led by TBWA CEO Troy Ruhanen (below.) TBWA’s Deepthi Prakash and CFO Denis Streiff also take senior roles.
This is a considerable comedown in the world of Omnicom for BBDO, for many years its top performing and biggest creative network. Former BBDO CEO Andrew Robertson, once seen as a possible successor to Omnicom CEO John Wren, is now agency chairman. All Omnicom’s creative agencies, including DDB as well as BBDO, now report to Ruhanen and co.
All the ad holding companies are rationalising their creative agencies, with the possible exception of Havas which has invested in Uncommon Creative Studio. AI is blamed by some (including the ad holding companies) but, at bottom, lies the scarcity of the big agency of record (AOR) contracts that used to support networks of thousands of well-paid people.
Ruhanen says: “We (now) have far greater flexibility to be able to meet the needs of the client” and “the intention is not to build a “holding company within a holding company..This doesn’t come at the sacrifice of the agency brands, it’s there to help them.”
Rival WPP has consolidated most of its creative agencies into VML although Ogilvy remains to plough its own furrow. At Omnicom it’s definitely TBWA on top, something which might bring a smile to the shade of Chiat Day’s Jay Chiat, who merged his ground-breaking agency with TBWA although he later became no fan of ad holding companies. Chiat Day’s Apple business remains the TBWA cornerstone.
