Omnicom: be careful what you wish for
“When the gods want to punish us, they send us what we desire.”
The old Italian proverb popularised by Oscar Wilde kept rattling around my head when Omnicom finally absorbed Interpublic. Philippe Krakowsky can tell himself and the market that this deal secures its future inside a larger ecosystem. He gets scale, safety and a $49m payout, plus a new role as joint chief operating officer alongside Omnicom’s existing COO, Daryl Simm.
But any Omnicom executive or employee that is licking their lips at the prospect of being (by far) the world’s largest advertising agency group should not assume scale guarantees success.
In fact, knocking out Interpublic as a major competitor is more likely to accelerate Omnicom’s decline.
