Omnicom

Odd, but interesting turn of events as rival holding companies Omnicom and IPG earlier joined forces to create “Commonwealth,” which will now serve as global AOR for Chevrolet. Specifically, the Chevy business will be jointly handled by Goodby and McCann Erickson and based in Detroit. Guess our tip from yesterday afternoon stating verbatim that “GSP is going to win the Chevy business” was pretty spot-on.

GM’s VP, global CMO Joel Ewanick explains in a statement, saying, “This is the first time that two large marketing communications holding companies have come together to form a single company. Commonwealth will be based right here in Detroit, and its only focus will be on strengthening and growing Chevrolet into an iconic global brand.” The four creative execs at Commonwealth will consist of creative chairman/GS&P namesake Jeff Goodby, Washington Olivetto, McCann London/New York CCO Linus Karlsson and Prasoon Joshi.

We suppose the alignment of two major agencies, following a six-month review, shouldn’t be too far-fetched considering Goodby has been working on domestic advertising while McCann has handled a fair amount of global work. Responsibility for global efforts, according to the announce, will be transitioned by Commonwealth, save for China, India and Uzbekistan, which will continue handling regional efforts assigned to their specific agencies. We’ve been told China and India were not part of the RFP, though McCann has been leading the ad accounts for Chevrolet in said countries.

 

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It looks like 67-year-old Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida went all in with Omnicom as the Jacksonville-based healthcare organization has appointed five shops from the umbrella corp to handle future brand/marketing communication work. It looks like BCBS FL is staying local for the most part as the agencies on its new roster include BBDO Atlanta, which will handle brand advertising and Fort Lauderdale-based Zimmerman, which will take on retail advertising and media buying/planning. Rounding out the list are Footsteps (African-American advertising), Alma (Hispanic) and TPG (digital/direct).

Regarding the new agency relationship, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida’s VP of brand development/marketing comms Mark S. Lee says in a statement, “It embraces the emerging trend of other best-of-class marketers to employ an open-source agency model amongst its partner agencies. And it provides us with the focused specialization we require to meet the marketing challenges we face in our multi-dimensional Florida market.”

The incumbent on the BCBS FL account was Draftfcb Chicago, which was one of the seven finalists in the review that took place over the summer.

 

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It’s that time of year again and results are in from Omnicom, which announced that its net income for the third quarter of 2011 increased 16.7 percent to $203.7 million from $174.6 million in the same period last year. If you’re still in the mood to compare this year to last, Omnicom’s worldwide revenue increased 12.9 percent to $3,380.9 million, which yet again, is up from $2,994.6 million in the third quarter of 2010.

Among other things during today’s conference call, Omnicom chief John Wren said, “We’re very pleased with the operating performance of our business and the progress we’re making towards our strategic priorities. Looking forward, our performance will clearly be affected by a number of external factors: the ability of European leaders to deal with the region’s sovereign debt problems, Washington’s ability to foster economic growth and the role of that rapidly growing economies in Asia and other parts of the world will play, not only economically, but politically.”

Check out the rest of the transcript here.

The gang behind the Effies and marketing service Warc have come up with their first global effectiveness rankings and wouldn’t you know it, BBDO’s Colombian branch, Santo, is the most effective individual agency office in the world. Don’t worry, Wieden + Kennedy did make yet another list, taking on the mantle of most effective independent ad agency while BBDO’s parent Omnicom was named most effective advertising holding company.

On the client side, the top five most effective advertisers according to the Effies are Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Kraft, Nestle and Coca-Cola, while the top five most effective brands are McDonald’s, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Chevrolet and Vodafone.

In Friday’s edition of “People who are Getting Promoted Around Omnicom,” PHD has named Craig Atkinson as its new president and chief digital officer. Atkinson most recently led McDonald’s digital business at OMD, where he also held the title of chief acquisitions officer. Atkinson’s career features stints at Modem Media, Digitas, and Arc Worldwide and strategy development for clients HBO, Intel, Michelin, Washington Mutual, and the U.S. Army.

The exec will assume his new role on April 1. In the meantime, he’s transitioning his duties to his soon-to-be replacement at OMD, the company’s current Midwest digital director Michael Solomon. As MD of OMD’s McDonald’s business, Solomon will “lead the development and execution of McDonald’s overall strategic approach and execution of its national media plan, while maintaining a special focus on digital and emerging media strategy.” Try printing that on a business card, Mr. Solomon. According to a press release quoting Omnicom North America CEO Page Thompson, “To paraphrase a fundamental principal of our industry, his appointment is definitely a case of the right man, in the right place at the right time.”

Sir Marty isn’t the only smiling from his holding company’s 2010 results as John Wren‘s Omnicom, parent company of BBDO, DDB, TBWA, Goodby, you get the idea, reported that Q4 global revenue rose 10 percent to nearly $3.6 billion, up from $3.27 billion the year before.

The new global revenue tally tops Wall Street analysts’ estimates of $3.44 billion. Meanwhile, revenue from its U.S. business alone rose nearly 13 percent to $1.84 billion. As far as fourth-quarter 2010 net income goes, Wren & Co. racked up $246.5 million, compared with $229.6 million in 2009. Fiscal year total? $827.7 million.

Wren seems positive enough, telling those in on the earnings call, “We believe our 2010 results demonstrate significant progress. As we look into 2011 and beyond, we feel confident in how we’re positioned. We’re excited by the growth prospects we see around the globe.”

Omnicom chief exec John Wren‘s smile is probably as wide as Sir Sorrell’s today as the former’s agency holding company boasted a net income increase of 5.4 percent to $174.6 million in Q3 2010, up from $165.6 million in the third quarter of 2009.

Omnicom’s worldwide revenue for the nine months ending Sept. 30, 2010, meanwhile, jumped 5.9 percent to $8,955.7 million, up from $8,454.9 million in the same period last year. In a statement during the earnings call, Wren said that he was “pleasantly surprised” by growth in the U.S. during the quarter and renewed strength in parts of Europe like the U.K. and France. For a full rundown of the numbers, click here.

More: “Omnicom Earnings Report: Year Over Outlook is Down“

As with other advertising holding companies, 2010 was much kinder than 2009 to Omnicom , which posted its Q2 results this morning. The parent of networks like BBDO and DDB announced that its net income for the second quarter of this year increased 4.2 percent to $243.3 million from $233.4 million in the second quarter of last year.

Omnicom’s worldwide revenue, meanwhile, jumped 5.9 percent to $3.04 billion from $2.87 billion in Q2 of last year, with U.S. revenue specifically up 7.4 percent to $1.64 billion. You can read the company’s full earnings release here.

Chart via MarketWatch

More: “ZenithOptimedia Ups Global Ad Forecast Once Again”

While its net earnings dropped about a mil from $164.5M to $163.4M from same quarter last year, Omnicom reported that during the three-month Q1 period, revenue increased to $2.92 billion from $2.75 billion in 2009. According to Trading Markets, operating expenses totaled $2.63 billion, up from $2.46 billion in the corresponding period prior year. Net interest expense for the period rose to $24.1 million from $21.4 million last year. See the bill after the jump…

More: “Omnicom Earnings Report: Year Over Outlook is Down”

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