Holding companies losing their advantage?
November 20, 2007 – 1:10 pm
For those in advertising, you may have already read the press that Bank of America won’t renew their agreement with Omnicom to manage their marketing and advertising services.
They are also putting up their $250 million media account up for review.
I bank with Bank of America and like their brand and don’t really know enough about their ads to comment on them, but the bigger item is that some large organizations are reconsidering the trade offs of the holding company model that locks an organization in selecting ad firms within the group.
The financial services giant said it was abandoning the holding company approach mainly because it wants to have more control and choice in selecting agencies and specialized marketing service providers.
In the short term, according to the article on Adweek, it sounds like some of the business will stay within the Omnicom umbrella, but are interested in opening up to others.
It sounds like B of A tried the holding company model first with IPG, then with Omnicom, and now they are shying back away from the model. I’m curious to watch and see if others start shying back away from the holding company model or if they are getting the benefits they were sold.
Technorati Tags: Omnicom, Bank of America, BofA, umbrella, holding company
2 Responses to “Holding companies losing their advantage?”
The holding company model is still a bizarre concept to me. I am not sure that anyone, advertisers OR participating agencies, get the full benefit of the model. There are plusses, to be sure. I just don’t know that they outweigh the rest.
By beer sorta on Nov 20, 2007
Someone I heard recently said,”It’s time for ad agencies to stop getting away with it — and get on with it.”
I think holding companies get away with a lot.
Some great ideas are coming independent shops. It’s good to see some big brands taking notice.
By Paul on Nov 20, 2007