| | Media Buyer & Planner Today | | | | | | | | | #1 WPP Consolidates Branding Agencies | | The advertising holding company has combined five of its branding agencies into one new consultancy unit that it is calling Superunion. The five branding agencies include Brand Union, The Partners, Lambie-Nairn, Addison and VBAT. The newly combined consultancy will operate with 750 staffers across 23 offices and 18 countries. Client billings are said to be in excess of $100 million worldwide and include brands such as Diageo, Ford, Bank of America, British Airways, Deloitte, Merrill Lynch and Vodafone. The number of employees is not being reduced, although there will be some cost savings in the area of office space. Jim Prior, who will serve as global CEO of Superunion, tells The Wall Street Journal that the structure will be similar to that of a management consultancy where most teams will be organized around clients assignments, rather than by function. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: As Adweek reports, the WPP consolidation comes on the heels of a disappointing 2017 for WPP during which it missed its projected first-half revenue and saw its stock plunge as a result. After that the company's CEO Martin Sorrell was pressured to come up with a reorganization plan for the company. WPP first combined media agencies MEC and Maxus into a new media agency Wavemaker. Brian Wieser, senior analyst at Pivotal Research believes the consolidation into Superunion will help WPP better compete with management consultancies that have been trying to steal away some of the traditional agency client business. | Three Takes: WSJ | Adweek | MediaPost
| | | | #2 Baccardi Buys Patron for $5B | | The largest family-owned spirits company in the world, best known for its namesake rum, has acquired Patron Spirits for $5.1 billion. Baccardi already held a 30% stake in the company, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The move comes as Baccardi's competitors have recently also bought premium tequila brands. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: The acquisition could potentially have an impact on ad agencies. Patron spent some $20 million on measured media in the U.S. in 2016, according to Kantar Media. Patron uses MullenLowe for creative and that agency's MediaHub unit for media, Ad Age reports. Whether those agencies remain in place for Patron remains to be seen. Omnicom's BBDO Worldwide handles global creative for most Baccardi brands, which also include Grey Goose vodka, while OMD handles media duties across the entire portfolio. A Baccardi spokeswoman told Ad Age it is too early to speculate on agency maneuvers. However one bright spot for Mullen is that Patron's senior leadership team is expected to stay on board, including chief marketing officer Lee Applebaum. | Three Takes: Ad Age | WSJ | USA Today
| | | | #3 Netflix Plans 54% Hike in Ad Spending | | The ever-expanding streaming video giant has announced plans to increase its annual ad spending by 54% to $2 billion from $1.3 billion. The goal of Netflix is to draw more viewers to its original programming. Netflix plans to spend upwards of $8 billion on content. It currently has 88 scripted series, including high-profile ones like House of Cards, Stranger Things and The Crown. But while Netflix is spending big bucks to market its own products, CEO Reed Hastings reiterated plans to keep its own platform commercial-free. The ad dollars it is spending itself on other platforms is aimed at increasing its paid subscriber base. B&C reports that Netflix expects to add another 6.35 million subscribers worldwide in first quarter, including 1.45 million in the U.S., for a total of 56.2 million. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: The aggressive ad spending to market its programming to potential subscribers matters to its traditional TV competitors who stand to lose viewers to digital and over-the-top TV watchers. It's something linear TV networks should not ignore. | Two Takes: WSJ | B&C
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| | 54 | | Percentage of increase in the number of shopping-related apps downloaded in 2017, according to data from Flurry Analytics. Music, media and entertainment apps showed a 43% increase in usage, while business and finance app usage was up 33% and news and magazine app usage was up 20%. At the opposite end of the spectrum, surprisingly, gaming app usage was down 16%, while sports app usage was down 8%. | – Reported by eMarketer
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| | ABC Wins With Strong 'Bachelor' | by Michael Malone
ABC took top prize in Monday's ratings, as The Bachelor led the network to a 1.7 in viewers 18-49, and a 6 share. CBS and Fox were runner-up, both at 1.0/4. Two hours of The Bachelor scored a 1.8 and The Good Doctor a 1.7, both shows flat with last Monday. On CBS, Kevin Can Wait rated a 1.3 and Man With a Plan a 1.2, both series flat. Superior Donuts was down 9% at 1.0 and 9JKL decreased 20% to 0.8. Drama Scorpion fell 11% to 0.8. On Fox, Lucifer grew 29% to 0.9 and The Resident rated a 1.0. The medical drama premiered Sunday, with a football playoffs lead-in, at 2.7. NBC posted a 0.9/3. The Wall did a level 1.2 and Better Late Than Never lost 10% for a 0.9, then The Brave fell 14% to 0.6. Telemundo and Univision both scored a 0.5/2. The CW did a 0.3/1. Supergirl dropped 17% to 0.5 and Valor posted its usual 0.2. | |
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| • JAMES LOU was appointed chief strategy officer of We Are Unlimited, the DDB Worldwide creative agency that handles the McDonald's account. Lou was most recently executive VP, group director, integrated strategy at BBDO. Prior to that he was executive VP, chief strategy officer at Havas Chicago and co-chief strategy officer of Havas Worldwide.
• GUY MARKS was named CEO of Europe, Middle East and Africa for OMD Worldwide, while BRIAN CROTTY was appointed CEO of Latin America for the agency. At the same time, DAMIAN WINSTANLEY was promoted to chief marketing officer of OMD's global network. Marks was previously with mobile advertising and digital production agency Mobile5, which he founded. Crotty was formerly with creative agency AlmapBBDO. While Winstanley was previously chief talent officer for the EMEA region of OMD.
• ANTHONY NOTO has left his position as chief operating officer at Twitter to become CEO at financial tech company Social Finance. He had held the position at Twitter since 2016. • LISA TOPOL and DEREK BARNES were named co-chief creative officers at DDB New York. They were previously executive creative directors at Grey New York. Prior to that, Topol was a group creative director at TBWA/Chiat/Day. Barnes was previously creative director at Anomaly. • ALEX RODRIGUEZ will join the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball broadcast team this season as an analyst succeeding Aaron Boone, who in the off-season was named manager of the New York Yankees. Rodriquez will join returning analyst Jessica Mendoza and reporter Buster Olney during the telecasts. Also, MATT VAGERSIAN replaces Dan Shulman as play-by-play announcer. | |
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