WPP's Digital Shops Mix Creative With Ad BuysAnd Vice Versa
This story was written by David Kaplan.
From the latter half of the 1990s to the early years of this century, ad holding companies began solidifying a simple structure that set clear lines for their agencies: some will strictly concentrate on creative and others would solely focus on media buying and never the twain shall meet. But as digital disciplines have been added to the mix, the lines between creative and planning and buying have become blurred. A WSJ piece looks at WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather (on the traditional creative side) and Mediaedge: cia (a traditional media buyer and planner) and finds the two sides trading roles when it comes to their respective digital units. While such moves are taking place at other agencies, traditional media buyers take a dim view of the shift and believe it will hurt more than help. Chris Ingram, the founder of media shop the UK-based CIA, which WPP bought and merged with Mediaedge several years ago, warned of "duplication of effort and extra cost" of such efforts. As he told WSJ, "It's like a land grab, and nobody has got any rules."
Ogilvy's buying unit continues double-digit growth: To concerns like Ingram's, WPP would say that greater competition and a widening of skills at its agencies is a good thing in tough times like this. And the company claims that the policy is working at Ogilvy, which created a digital media buying division, Neo@Ogilvy, three years ago, and can be considered a competitor to WPP sibling Mediaedge's MEC Interaction unit, which offers the same services. In terms of the pay-off, in 2008 Neo@Ogilvy's U.K. business grew about 25 percent, the company said, adding that its on track to grow 15 percent this year, which would be impressive in a market where digital ad spending is slowing much more considerably.
Mediaedge brings digital creative to Germany: A few months ago, Mediaedge:cia formed a digital creative shop in Paris called Arthur Schlovsky. The name is based on an invented persona the agency made it up in an effort to be "creative." The character/agency symbol is a 1940's style ad man who is credited with being the first to use product placement. Last month, Arthur Schlovsky opened in Germany. "This seems like a long way from what a media company traditionally has done," says Mediaedge CEO Charles Courtier told WSJ, offering a counterpart to Ingram's call for clearer boundaries by adding, "I don't think anybody owns content development."
By David Kaplan