With (now denied) rumors having swirled about the advertising industry a while back that giant advertising holding company Publicis Groupe would swallow up Interpublic Group, the notion of agency consolidation has become almost comical. It wasn’t so long ago that independent advertising agencies ruled the industry. Today behemoths like Publicis, MDC, Interpublic, Publicis WPP and Omnicom now control the lion’s share of ad agencies.
This consolidation has wreaked havoc in many areas of agency operations – not the least of which are the numerous client conflicts that arise when one agency buys another and then the two realize they now handle competing brands, a no-no in the ad world.
But an area of concern that receives much less press and attention is agency operations – the plain, old, boring notion to how an agency gets work done. It’s not sexy but, believe me, the fastest way to lose a client is complicated and confusing operational methodologies.
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