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Marketing Briefing: Why holding companies are taking a ‘platform’ approach to pitch more cohesively ​​​​​​​

By Kristina Monllos, senior marketing editor

Holding companies are taking a more cohesive approach to pitch advertisers. 

Omnicom is the latest to make structure changes to solidify this shift. Last week, the holding company revealed a new structure for its creative agencies, deemed Omnicom Advertising Group, with TBWA Worldwide CEO Troy Ruhanen at the helm. The move is an effort to deliver “seamless” creative services around the globe to clients, according to a statement from Omnicom chairman and CEO John Wren. 

Structure shifts like Omnicom’s recent move have become commonplace at holding companies in recent years. How they shake out differs by holding company. Some have parted ways with agency brands altogether in favor of one unified brand like Denstu while others have consolidated agencies like WPP’s move to merge Wunderman with VML.

“Holding companies were about scale, aggregating as much revenue as possible and, to a lesser extent, about having conflict shops,” said Andrew Essex, senior managing partner at TCS Interactive. “Now that is too much and it’s much better to be one throat to choke with an end-to-end offering that you call a platform [managing everything] from ideation to implementation.” 

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