The world's largest ad agency merger will tweak the Twin Cities advertising market too.
Three Minneapolis agencies will be affected by the pending megamerger between Omnicom and Publicis announced over the weekend. But an immediate impact on the agencies is unlikely, industry experts acknowledge.
"A lot of these mergers happen at the highest levels apart from the day-to-day operations at the agency level," said John Purdy, a professor of advertising and public relations at the University of St. Thomas whose background is in the agency world.
The three Minneapolis agencies affected by the Omnicom-Publicis merger are Martin Williams and BBDO Proximity, both of which fall under the Omnicom umbrella, and Fallon, which is part of the Publicis family.
"It's business as usual, and our day-to-day operations will not be affected," said Fallon CEO Mike Buchner in an interview Monday. "However, when the deal is completed, sometime in fourth quarter of this year or first quarter next year, Fallon and its clients will have access to a deeper pool of global resources and broader capabilities than we have today."
Fallon's client list includes insurance giant Travelers, Under Armour, Purina and the Children's Defense Fund.
Neil White, CEO of the BBDO office in Minneapolis, agreed.
"The merger won't impact our operations in any big way but the eventual impact will be access to additional services," said White, whose firm's biggest client is Austin, Minn.-based Hormel with its Spam, Jennie-O and other food product lines.
