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This is a big deal for three reasons First itamp8217s 26 billionSecond Omnicom Media has not historically been a PampampG roster agencyThird one of the Omnicom media agencies PHD has a major strategic role on Unilever Things have clearly moved on a bit and for the good since the days of the unofficial Procter and Unilever agreement never to allow their agencies to hire someone from the otheramp8217s agency without a period of quarantineThereamp8217s more Procter has always organized its media assignments by region or market Now itamp8217s going to structure by product or category This seems to indicate a belief in the contribution the agency can make to brand planning across geographies as opposed to simply delivering volume benefits Indeed Procteramp8217s Global Brand Officer Marc Pritchard said as much in an interview in Ad Age in which he emphasized strategic considerations over pure volumeThe implications are interestingGroupM which handles Procter in the UK through MediaCom who led the US pitch must be in danger under a productled reorganization GroupM will be disappointed not to have converted the UK and European relationship into a US winOmnicom has announced it will set up a new Procterfocused network Understandably there are few details yet around this but clearly the new outfit will be shaped to Procteramp8217s requirements I wouldnamp8217t be altogether surprised if this turned out to be a JV with shared ownershipThen thereamp8217s digital trading Procteramp8217s thoughts on the current agency trading desk model are best illustrated by their decision to take amp8220programmatic buying functions inhouse under a new internal operation called Hawkeyeamp8221 Ad AgeOmnicomamp8217s pitch was led by Scott Hagedorn who heads what is described as amp8220the data and technology hubamp8221 Annalect note the lack of the word amp8220tradingamp8221 in that descriptor An evolution in the trading desk model appears to be well underwayThose of us who believe that the future for agencies lies in their planning capabilities will argue that the PampampG decision following hot on the heels of Cokeamp8217s decision to award planning as a separate assignment to Ogilvy and CitiBankamp8217s call to create a dedicated fullservice agency are all pointing in the same directionAnd what of Starcom the longterm PampampG US incumbent This is a disastrous result and has already led to some analysts recommending a sell position on Publicis stock Remember it was Starcom US who lost Coke tooAs an exLeo Burnett media head Starcom emerged from Burnett this saddens me but the fact is that Starcom has not moved on anywhere near far or fast enough from its days as the Leo Burnett media department The same is emphatically not the case with GroupM OMG or IPGamp8217s MediabrandsBurnett used to be the largest media operation in the USA by some distance Many of those who moved on to run Starcom remain too steeped in not just the Leo Burnett culture but the Leo Burnett USA cultureStarcom in the US has for years been too UScentric with its top management appearing to be somewhat removed from whatamp8217s going on in other parts of the world including Starcom offices in other parts of the worldWhether itamp8217s a lack of interestinvestment from Publicis which seems most unlikely or a lack of management vision coupled with a holding on to past glories the PampampG and Coke decisions will no doubt prompt some major changes at StarcomLaura Desmond the agencyamp8217s CEO has already been moved out of her role in a Publicis reorganization while Zenith CEO Steve King has been promoted into overseeing both of the holding companyamp8217s major media agency networksExpect more Odd to remember that it wasnamp8217t so long ago we were discussing a Publicis Omnicom merger isnamp8217t itImages courtesy of Corbis The opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageMyersBizNet management or associated bloggers

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