The messy Johnson/Martinez affair at JWT signalled the end for the venerable agency as a separate entity (WPP merged it with Wunderman with Wunderman in the driving seat.) It also pre-dated, just, Sir Martin Sorrell’s ousting at the company he ...
Read More »The AA’s Stephen Woodford: what 2022 might bring for advertising – pandemic permitting
Our AA/WARC adspend forecast predicts continued strong growth in the advertising market, after a record year in 2021, with the fastest rebound of any major international market continuing into 2022. Like the last couple of years, these predictions have the ...
Read More »From the MAA Archive: Murphy, Golding and Heartfield debut New Commercial Arts
And it proved to be quite a debut in 2020, winning Halifax, MoneySupermarket and chunks of Vodafone and Sainsbury’s (among others) in pretty short order, as well as recruiting Rob Curran from Wunderman Thompson to head up CX. Now NCA ...
Read More »From the MAA Archive: Publicis Groupe and Omnicom in $35bn merger
Actually they weren’t but that was what Omnicom’s John Wren and Publicis boss Maurice Levy intended in 2013, described here by Stuart Smith. As merger rumours go, this one didn’t come much better. Omnipub. Or more probably Publicom. But let’s ...
Read More »From the MAA Archive: Sorrell out as he quits WPP ahead of investigation findings
The biggest event in adland over the past few years was undoubtedly the ousting of WPP founder and long-serving CEO Sir Martin Sorrell in 2018. This followed an injudicious trip to Shepherd Market, a lively area of London’s Mayfair, then ...
Read More »Publicis ends 2021 on high note as Starcom scoops McDonald’s US media from Omnicom
Starcom has capped a stellar 2021 for Publicis Media in the US by winning McDonald’s from Omnicom’s OMD. OMD has lost McDonald’s $1.6bn national media planning and buying to Starcom after nearly 20 years although it keeps some business including ...
Read More »2021’s stand-out performers: MAA agencies, advertiser and ad holding company of the year
2021 was a surprisingly good year for the ad holding companies, boards and shareholders anyway, as advertising bounced back from the still-with-us pandemic, money pouring into digital mostly although TV did well. In the US Interpublic continued its steady progress ...
Read More »Microsoft to buy AT&T’s Xandr to boost ad tech offer
Microsoft is buying AT&T’s ad-tech business, Xandr, subject to regulators, to boost its connected TV offer. Xandr, named after AT&T founder Alexander Graham Bell, includes both demand and sell-side platforms and an ad server. Microsoft’s Mikhail Parakhin says: “With Xandr’s ...
Read More »Fiona Foy: trust, yes, but verify too in media agency deals
Five years ago, the ANA highlighted the lack of transparency in the media and advertising supply chain in their ground-breaking report. My colleague at Media Marketing Compliance, Stephen Broderick, was part of the group of select advisers that helped put ...
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