PR and advertising gets into bed together

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PR and advertising gets into bed together

This week Omnicom bought Interpublic in a $13 billion deal, one that observers agreed creates the biggest advertising company and will surely shake-up that industry.

And each other. “Lots of staff will be culled,” an IPG boss tells City AM.

Less noted is that the deal must also create the world’s biggest PR company. Omnicom owns FleishmanHillard while Interpublic has Weber Shandwick.

In terms of income, Weber is the second biggest PR agency with FleishmanHillard fourth.

Together, they leapfrog Edelman, the present number one.

What’s the plan? Interpublic CEO Philippe Krakowsky says it’s about analytics.

The corporate bit: “Using expansive behaviourial data on consumers, we can help clients build a view of their customer and prospect that informs every stage of the marketing life cycle.”

From a hack’s point of view, the bigger a PR company gets the harder it is to navigate, the less useful it seems to become, long-standing personal relationships aside.

There are also a bunch of hacks who think PR and advertising is the same thing. They aren’t right, but this deal makes them seem righter.

Moreover, aren’t the PR businesses in competition with the ad teams?

The flaks think they can get results for clients less cheaply than advertising requires.

The ad teams see any dollar not spent on advertising as the devil’s work. Mistrust must exist in any entity this large.

The point of any merger is to cut costs and make new efficiencies, though they both often take time to come through. (Edelman has already announced 330 job cuts).

For the smaller agencies trying to grow in the US, this surely presents opportunities to grab clients who feel they aren’t getting the attention their fees deserve.

And to poach staff who don’t like the idea of working for such a gigantic corporation.

The merged business is inevitably going to spend more time on internal processes that cost money, and less time on external ones that might make some.

At some point, that frustrates the talent, and some of them move on.

Still, PR just got bigger. Again.

Please send candidates for press release of the day to: Simon.english@roxhillmedia.com

Press release of the day

With the ECB cutting rates and the US expected to, a handy guide to where the Bank of England stands from EY Item Club

It expects the Bank’s MPC to hold at 4.75% in December and return to rate cuts in the New Year, perhaps by February.

Matt Swannell says: “Since November’s decision to reduce Bank Rate to 4.75%, pay and inflation data have evolved as the MPC excepted.”

Stories that will keep rolling

1) ECB cuts rates by a quarter point to 3%. FT 

2) Currys says price rises “inevitable” after Budget. BBC 

3) Why London’s stock market is in danger of sliding into irrelevance. Telegraph 

4) Musk’s SpaceX hits $350bn value. The Times 

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