Commentary

Real Media Riffs - Wednesday, Jun 18, 2003

ShopShopShop: Apparently the WPP Group sees a lot of sense in continuing to hold fast to its business model and move forward in acquiring more shops. Published reports say it is very close to acquiring Cordiant Group. Cordiant Group has Bates. Bates has Pfizer. Pfizer is expected to be among the fastest growing ad spenders in a category that I think could easily outstrip automotive as the hottest area in the ad business. So it makes sense that WPP would be very aggressive here. What it points out, to me anyway, is that this whole notion of a holding company is still alive and well in the minds of its executives. It looked over the past couple of months like the holding companies would combine divisions to increase profitability, and adopt that as its key strategy. That's not it. Everytime a key player with a key account comes up for grabs, you can see how important it is to the holding company model. But you wonder how many Cordiant Groups are out there to keep the behemoths fed.

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Coen Report: I actually thought there was a lot to be optimistic about in Bob Coen's update released yesterday. Yes he slightly dialed back his predictions about US ad growth. But how about cable TV looking at a 10 percent increase? It also surprised me that magazines, in a year when the upfront supposedly took so much money off the table, are looking at seven percent overall growth. The key, I thought, was Coen's prediction that national advertisers will pump the volume for the second half of this year into 2004. That's going to be a tide to lift all boats.

At The Buzzer: Say what you will about Microsoft, but I think it's a good thing they've decided to treat spam like they treat a more tangible competitor.

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