Sponsored Links

Publicis, Omnicom say major clients welcome merger

1 of 11. Omnicom Chief Executive John Wren (L) and Publicis Group Chairman and CEO Maurice Levy shake hands after announcing an agreement on their merger on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York July 29, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton

PARIS | Mon Jul 29, 2013 12:05pm EDT

PARIS (Reuters) - The chief executives of Publicis and Omnicom said they had spoken to major clients about their planned merger and did not anticipate major problems with big advertisers defecting to rivals in the transition period.

Publicis CEO Maurice Levy said the reaction to the merger from all the company's major clients had been "extremely positive".

Competing sector executives and analysts expect that the Publicis Omnicom merger could spur some big customers to switch agencies to avoid conflicts.

Holding companies such as Omnicom and Publicis own networks of agencies and PR firms within the larger group. They're designed to work independently so that competing clients - Pepsi and Coca-Cola for example - are placed in separate networks to avoid conflict.

"We're going to work extremely hard to resolve any client conflict issues with creative solutions," said John Wren, the Omnicom CEO.

(Reporting by James Regan; Editing by Leila Abboud)

 
We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/
Comments (0)
Be the first to comment on reuters.com.
Add yours using the box above.