How to avoid a mEssence
A month ago GroupM announced it would merge two of its key media agencies Essence and Mediacom globally. Calum Jaspan looks at the local implications and challenges facing a merged EssenceMediacom and asks how it can avoid becoming, what some in the industry have already named, ‘mEssence’.
In a global move, WPP announced in late April its media investment arm GroupM would merge two key media agencies, Essence and Mediacom, to create EssenceMediacom.
Locally, the decision will have major implications for both GroupM and the wider media agency landscape creating a new 530-person agency, with billings of $839m. This places the merged entity well behind OMD ($1431m) but importantly in the Australian market just ahead of UM ($819m) in the number two spot.
Among its most high-profile clients will be the Commonwealth Bank, Mars, Google (shared with PHD) Coca-Cola, Uber, and KFC, and it is worth noting this is now the third agency merger Essence has seen in just over a year, with WPP initially merging AKQA Media and Ikon Communications in February last year, then merging the new AKQA Media with Essence.
