Now we’re speaking. 

This follows Mark Learn’s WPP template: merge the also-rans whereas defending the crown jewels. 

DDB and TBWA change into one entity as a result of, truthfully, can anybody exterior the business inform them aside anymore? 

FCB absorbs MullenLowe in a “merger of equals” that everybody is aware of isn’t. 

The Martin Company? Deutsch? They change into “facilities of excellence” throughout the larger networks, which is company communicate for “your P&L now rolls as much as another person, don’t purchase that new condo”. 

That is the place the true financial savings emerge. One finance group, one HR division, one very nervous workforce questioning in the event that they’ll survive integration. 

It’s brutal effectivity wrapped in a strategic narrative that the market will purchase. And that outdated chestnut about consumer conflicts is not a powerful sufficient excuse for multiplicity.

The sensible cash bets that is the result as a result of it’s been beta-tested and board-approved. 

WPP already proved you may merge Wunderman Thompson with VMLY&R with no vital repercussions. The DDB-TBWA merger additionally makes brutal sense. Each are creatively revered, however commercially challenged, stronger collectively than dying individually. 

FCB-MullenLowe is much more apparent.

4 artistic pillars offers the brand new firm sufficient manufacturers to handle conflicts whereas delivering financial savings by back-office consolidation. 

The killer app right here is that it follows a longtime playbook. Personal fairness companies love “confirmed fashions,” and John Wren is basically operating a PE play right here. The danger mitigation is ideal: radical sufficient to ship synergies, conservative sufficient to keep away from consumer revolt. It’s the Goldilocks technique, which in company America means it’s nearly actually what’s going to occur.

The one query is whether or not it’s radical sufficient for the long run? In 2024 this is able to have been a useless cert. However WPP will not be prospering, and the world of promoting solely will get harder and extra disrupted as you learn this. 

Choice 3: The Nuclear Different

That is John Wren going full Thanos. 

Two artistic manufacturers. That’s it. 

BBDO McCann turns into the premium providing, the Mercedes-Benz of promoting. DDB FCB turns into the challenger model. Tesla, if you’ll. 

TBWA’s model fairness? Who cares? MullenLowe’s heritage? Irrelevant. The Martin Company’s independence? A luxurious they will’t afford. 

However right here’s the genius bit: they create a single platform entity – Omni Cloud – that handles all media, all information, all digital, all commerce. One P&L. One system. One throat to choke. It’s Publicis’s Energy of One on steroids. Purchasers get simplicity. Shareholders get margins north of 20%. And the business will get what it most likely wants greater than something: a actuality examine that the period of name proliferation is over.