WPP

Ah, so this is why we got a last-minute invite to a conference here in New York starring WPP don Sir Martin Sorrell among others. Come Jan. 1, WPP’s Team Detroit unit will launch a new unit here in the Big Apple that will be dedicated to the Lincoln brand. The new division will be led by McKinney alum and automotive industry vet Cameron McNaughton, who joins as president, as well as CCO Jon Pearce, who formerly served as ECD at BBH New York.

Regarding the Lincoln link of Team Detroit, which will ship some members to NYC, McNaughton says in a statement, “Our goal is simple: To help our partners at Lincoln create a new future for their brand as it reinvents itself. To achieve this, we are dedicated to creating a new, best-in-category integrated agency team that utilizes the top creative talent recruited within and outside of the WPP and Team Detroit network.”

No, there is no name yet for the new division but we’ll let you take a stab.

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

 

After spending 85 years at 285 Madison Avenue, Y&R New York is ready to make a move as the agency’s signed a deal to shift staff to 3 Columbus Circle, where they will occupy 10 floors (more than Grey NY?). The move won’t officially take place until 2013, but once completed, the new digs will house not only Y&R, but several of its WPP siblings including Wunderman, VML, Blast Radius, BrandBuzz, Bravo, Kang & Lee, KBM Group and ZAAZ. We’ve been told that Y&R’s been looking for space that “makes it much easier to collaborate.”

In a statement, Y&R global CEO David Sable says, “It’s exciting, and totally relevant to what we do, to be thrust into one of the most vibrant neighborhoods in the city, with great art, music, theater, shopping and food within walking distance, not to mention all of Central Park at our disposal.  As thrilling is starting with clean space–we are designing space that is optimal for absolutely every aspect of what we do and who we are.”

Update: Well, figured it’s more fitting to post the actual image of the 3 Columbus Circle office.

Take that, Wren. At least that’s what we imagine Sir Marty’s saying to the CEO of rival, Omnicom, this morning as it’s being reported that WPP has overtaken the aforementioned fellow umbrella company as the world’s biggest marketing group. Last we heard, Mr. Sorrell and crew ended 2010 with somewhat of a bang as WPP acquired TAXI and Blue State Digital in November and December, respectively.

Now, a new release from Marketing Services Financial Intelligence states that WPP registered the largest revenue for a global publicly listed marketing services company last year. Revenue for the U.K.-based holding company jumped 13 percent ($10.7b-$12.1b) from 2008 to 2009 thanks in large part to WPP’s acquisition of market research firm TNS in the fall of ’08. Omnicom, on the other hand, suffered a 12 percent drop in revenue during the same time period thanks to the economic downturn, which of course, caused a reduction in client spend.

As for the also-rans, Publicis Groupe came in third in the report, pushing IPG down to fourth place, while Dentsu, Havas and Aegis respectively rounded out the rest of the list.

Sir Martin Sorrell nabbed another one today as his WPP announced that it’s acquired TAXI and is aligning the shop with its roster of Young & Rubicam Brands unit. TAXI as most of you probably know was founded by Paul Lavoie and Jane Hope in Montreal in 1992 and with this move, Lavoie maintains his post as the agency’s chairman while Rob Guenette serves as its CEO.

Lavoie will in turn report to Y&R Brands CEO/chairman Peter Stringham, who seems excited enough about the moving, saying in a statement, “TAXI is a fantastic addition to our group. It will fit perfectly with the 30 companies at Young & Rubicam Brands that span the marketing communications spectrum offering another exciting dimension to create innovative integrated  solutions. We also believe that their strong client roster will benefit from the wide range of resources and talents at Young & Rubicam Brands.” TAXI currently has offices throughout Canada as well as in New York and Amsterdam and the “strong client roster” Stringham is referring to includes New York Life, Heineken, Burger King and the Toronto Raptors. 

Sir Martin Sorrell is surely smiling somewhere today as his holding company WPP posted a 36 percent lift in pre-tax profits to approximately $380 million for the first half of 2010, thanks in large part to strong ad recovery in the U.S. and return to growth in the U.K. according to Campaign.

The parent company of Ogilvy, Grey and JWT among others issued a statement, saying, “The results reflect the recovery in the world economy, following the massive fiscal and monetary stimulus in response to the sub-prime, insurance monocline, Lehman and other elements of the crises.”

During the six month period ending June 30, WPP revenue was up in Asia-Pacific, Africa (the World Cup had a little to do with it) and the Middle East among others and the company shed a further 9,500 employees around the world.

More: “British Chancellor Pleads for WPP’s Return to the U.K.”

It’s been nearly two years since changes to the British “tax regime” forced Sir Martin Sorrell and WPP to pack up and move shop from London to Dublin, but now George Osborne, the recently installed Chancellor of the Exchequer for the UK, is personally reaching out to Sorrell and pleading for the advertising umbrella firm to return home.

According to Brand Republic, WPP’s move to Ireland, which the company had been considering since April 2008, has saved them around $75 million to date and reduced their effective tax rate by nearly 8 percent from 2008-2009.

Still, the report this morning states Osborne and the newly appointed government are looking to sweeten the deal for UK companies to return home, where the corporate tax rate is more than twice that of Ireland’s. Now that he’s done calling the ad industry out for wanting to cash in on the social web, maybe Sir Martin has some more time to contemplate WPP’s potential move. Though with British corporate tax form in its nascent stages, who knows how the hell long that will take.

More: “An Interview with Sir Martin Sorrell”

April was good to WPP according to its chief executive. While speaking at the International Advertising Association conference in Moscow this week, Sir Martin Sorrell said, “We’ve just seen what we call our flash numbers for April, which did show that change from what we saw in March, so we are starting to see for the first time growth in our business on a worldwide basis.”

His statement comes just two weeks after the world’s largest ad holding company (by sales) upped its full-year revenue forecast from flat to 2 percent. According to Campaign, WPP’s “growth” marks the first time the advertising business has seen an increase on a worldwide basis since the economic downturn hit at the end of 2008. Guess WPP wasn’t just taking the piss when it claimed, “2010 should be a more stable year (famous last words!)” in its recent earnings report.

More: “Sir Martin: Businesses Should Promote Sustainability Because That’s What People Like”

BigThink interviewed Sir Martin Sorrell, asking him about WPP’s outlook on sustainability and its evolution. Using his usual indirect directness, Sorrell explained that it’s just good business to do good things. Refreshing answer, especially considering this was an easy opportunity for him to say, “well, it’s just the right thing to do” which would have been false. Businesses do things that are good for business &#151 that’s why they’re not called non-profits. Why are good things good for business?

“We know from all the data we get from the companies like Millwood Brown and Research International and TNS, our research companies, that consumers admire and respect companies that invest in these areas &#151 that respect these areas. And we also know that people coming out of universities or art schools or design schools or thinking about switching from one company to another in our industry or adjoining industry, or even thinking about doing other thing within our own company, they’re held and attracted by commitment to these areas. If you’re in business for the long-term, this is something that you should do because it’s good business.”

He goes on to explain that sustainability is part of the business model now and that operating under that MO helps improve a company’s social status. Well, he forgot to mention that’s only true to the extent of WPP’s PR team’s ability to convince the press they’re “doing good”.

More: “If WPP Ran a Strip Club…”

PRNewser Editor Joe Ciarallo had the pleasure of rooting around in WPP’s preliminary earnings report for this year. So far, everything still sucks. But when life gives you lemons, make a joke out of them.

“2010 should be a more stable year (famous last words!).”

Oh Mimsy, shall we dine in the helicopter or at that little place tucked beneath the Falls of Niagra? I simply can’t decide.

Speaking of snobbery, check out ModSnob’s debut booze event tonight in the NYC.

More: “WPP is going a bit green…”

Since 2006, Schematic has been expanding with the help of WPP. The agency moved from LA to New York, basically took over the Dell account (in Austin) while Enfatico floundered, and generally grew as a recognized player in the industry (though on the smaller side). So it seemed odd when a late last year we got word that the Atlanta office had closed. It hasn’t, but things aren’t looking good, according to sources.

What was once a 30-or-so-person shop has been whittled down to just four (or three, depending on who you ask). We’re told that two weeks ago, three-four of the remaining seven were let go. That included the last “creative”, a CD, and leaves three dev guys and an accounts person. According to a source familiar with the matter, there aren’t any accounts left in the office &#151 employees there are serving other clients.

The matter, if true, speaks to a broader issue facing smaller market agencies with big market roots &#151 in a down economy, brands are likely looking for bigger name agencies in hubs like New York. Why not? Some will respond to that notion and say that in Schematic’s case, a lack of creative foresight is to blame (or something like that, who knows). And maybe they’d be right, but when cars are cheap, buy a BMW &#151 it has higher “perceived value” (and an analog clock in the dash!).

An agency representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

More: “Schematico’s CEO Responds to ‘Dumping’ Enfatico”