Omnicom, now the world’s biggest advertising group after the takeover of IPG, has tweaked its incentives to encourage a more aggressive approach to hunting for new business.
CEO John Wren, speaking at a J.P. Morgan conference, said incentives had been changed to more focus on growth in individual markets,
“We've changed our approach,” he said.
“If I had to categorise or classify how both companies operated prior to the merger, we essentially waited to be invited to a pitch.
“We're being far more aggressive now. We're identifying companies that we believe we can bring value to, and we're going out and trying to stimulate the conversation.
“That is just the beginning, and we have a great group of people who are working on that.
“And we think that will yield additional growth to us as we get further and further into the year, because we've always won, we've batted above average when it comes to a pitch that somebody else calls.
He said Omnicom was trying to stimulate conversations with clients in far different ways than ever before.
“We're changing the incentive programs we have for individuals in the operating companies for ‘26 to be more specific about focus on growth in the individual markets,” Wren said.
“The big global pitches come up by themselves but there's quite a bit we can do to help ourselves in some of the larger local market business that we've otherwise not really focused on the past.”
Wren confirmed the company is on track for $US1.5 billion in savings from the takeover with IPG.
This includes $US900 million this year.
The company has been centralising operations and being more proactive in business development.
Accounting and some IT functions will be outsourced later in the year. “We believe we can hand over to experts, get a better result,” he said.
Agencies have been retired. “We sunsetted quite a number of brands,” Wren said.
About $US150 to $US160 million in labour costs were saved in the first quarter.
“You'll see a lot more of that being completed when we report the next quarter,” he said.
Media revenue is expected to reach 61% by the end of the year and plans to continue investing in technology and platform enhancements.
Wren noted minimal talent or client exodus post-merger, with only a few clients lost due to pricing issues and management changes.
“The creative assets are not fully reorganised just yet,” Wren said. “That connectivity clients are increasingly looking for and open to looking at assigning us their entire portfolio.”
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