Holding groups are ‘squeezing the life’ out of agencies, says Michael Farmer
Agency business advisor Michael Farmer has warned independents not to sell their businesses to holding companies as they are “squeezing the life” out of their agencies.
Farmer: ‘Holding groups are squeezing the life out of agency brands’
Speaking at the SAGE conference in Sydney, Farmer, the author of ‘Madison Avenue Manslaughter’, warned his audience of independent agency bosses they should “make your wealth another way“.
While many holding companies have built scale through acquiring independent agencies, Farmer warned: “For the holding companies it’s been very successful, when you think about how big WPP, Publicis and Omnicom have become over time.
Bob Hoffman summed it up perfectly when talking about Sorrell, and i paraphrase here, but greengrocers don’t pilot planes so why should accountants man the helm of (creative) agencies