TMW #205 | Technology is eating the marketing agency groups
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Agency holding companies are investing in Adtech and Martech in a desperate attempt to modernize. Will it work?
Sometimes you read a headline and rub your eyes to make sure you’re seeing straight. Omnicom acquiring Interpublic Group (IPG) this week was one of those times. It’s been over a decade since the last time two of the major marketing agency groups tried to merge; in 2013, it was Omnicom and Publicis Groupe that tried to join forces, but failed.
As the third and fourth largest agency groups by revenue respectively, the Omnicom acquisition of IPG would make the newly formed group the largest agency Holdco in the world if it passes regulatory scrutiny and operational hurdles.
So, the new Omnicom/IPG group is now the Untouchable Big Bad Wolf of the agency world, right?
Technically yes, but there is a bigger, bad-er wolf in the forest. Even as a combined group, Omnicom/IPG is small fry compared to the real giants of 21st-century marketing: Google, Microsoft, Meta, Salesforce, and the 14,106 other Martech and Adtech companies out there.
Martech and Adtech have increasingly encroached on marketing agencies since the advent of the internet and digital marketing. Agencies used to do everything for clients, from market research, strategy, creative, planning, execution, reporting, and optimization. But the tech platforms are quickly turning these things into features of their platforms, leaving agencies with a diminished value proposition.
So, it’s not an Omnicom/IPG merger that the other agency groups fear, but rather the tech companies that continue to cut their lunch.
Stay Curious,
Keanu Taylor
Make sense of marketing technology.
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Want to share something interesting or be featured in The Martech Weekly? Drop me a line at juan@themartechweekly.com.