Omnicom expected to shift Agency.com into TBWA Worldwide

by Jennifer Whitehead, Brand Republic 15-Mar-05, 12:00

LONDON - Omnicom Group, the world's largest marketing services company, is expected to shift Agency.com into its advertising network TBWA\ as part of moves to improve integrated services.

The company is expected to do the same with its other digital network Organic, which will be shifted into BBDO Worldwide. The digital units would operate alongside the direct marketing arms Tequila at TBWA and Proximity at BBDO.

In an interview with the Financial Times today, Omnicom chief executive John Wren said that the company's strategy is to shift its three major advertising networks, TBWA, BBDO and DDB Worldwide, back to multi-disciplinary agencies, and that Omnicom is in the final stages of this reorganisation.

While Wren would not be drawn on the next move in this reorganisation, the newspaper reports that the Agency.com and Organic shifts are expected to be next.

He will not be following the lead of Sir Martin Sorrell, group chief executive of the number two advertising company WPP, in becoming a "salesman" for his company's services. Instead, the creative agencies will be given enough firepower to win the big global pitches against the other advertising holding companies.

Wren told the Financial Times: "We believe people from different disciplines do their best work when they have worked together and when they have shared clients, and not because someone in the company decides that it looks better on a chart to organise them that way."

Agency.com, which has just marked its 10th anniversary, was expanded last year after it merged with another of Omnicom's digital agencies, Itraffic.

If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the Forum.