Whoops – WPP and its troubled once-flagship media company EssenceMediacom didn’t want this one. Sky media has ended its decades-long relationship with the company (initially MediaCom) and moved its £250m plus European account to Publicis Media.
That is Publicis’ second large European win on the expense of WPP; in Might it gained L’Oreal media within the UK and Eire. L’Oreal, one other £100m plus account, was initially dealt with by Maxus which was absorbed into Essence after which EssenceMediacom as one among a sequence of WPP inner mergers.
WPP and its media operation GroupM have already acted to spice up its providing with Brian Lesser taking on as CEO from Christian Juhl however Lesser is US-based and GroupM’s issues now seem wider. GroupM has additionally fashioned a revamped new enterprise unit, primarily led by Wavemaker execs, however it’s trying quite little too late. Unilever can also be reviewing its international media enterprise at WPP’s Mindshare though Publicis is unlikely to be the hazard right here because of its sturdy relationship with P&G.
Why do beforehand all-conquering companies like Mediacom out of the blue backpedal? The merger with Essence doesn’t appear to have helped (purchasers don’t like such strikes as they typically consequence within the lack of key execs in the reason for inner cost-saving housekeeping) whereas momentum is all the things in pitches, particularly if you’re defending. Publicis has outperformed its rivals throughout the board lately with solely Omnicom hanging on to its coat tails. Each have invested closely in information operations.
It’s definitely a poser for brand spanking new GroupM CEO Lesser and his final boss WPP CEO Mark Learn. An enormous lack of billings often means extra cutbacks and, on this case, presumably extra drastic surgical procedure. However that, as we’re seeing, doesn’t all the time work.
