WPP’s GroupM Merges Media Agencies in Bid to Streamline
variety.comBrian Steinberg Senior TV EditorGroupM, the massive media-investment arm of WPP, will winnow down the number of separate agencies under its aegis in a bid to streamline its operations and make ad-tech a more central part of the process for clients who spend millions of dollars on commercial inventory across video, mobile, social and other media venues.A spokesperson for GroupM said the moves would not result in any layoffs or departures of prominent executives.
As part of the announcement, Kyoko Matsushita, who led one of the media agencies, Essence, has been promoted to a new role as chief executive of WPP’s operations in Japan.As part of the move, Essence, will be combined with Mediacom, forming the 10,000-employee unit, EssenceMediacom, which counts clients such as Google, Mars, and NBCUniversal among its largest customers.
Meanwhile, Mindshare, another prominent GroupM holding, will take over the capabilities of Neo, an agency that has had more of a digital specialty, in an effort to offer clients a broader range of services.
GroupM will gather a host of so-called “activation” services from units like Finecast, Xaxis, and GroupM Services under the rubric of GroupM Nexus.
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