• Advertising Age, Monday, August 20, 2007 11:45 AM

Dell is the juiciest account to go up for grabs in years. And Madison Avenue executives are scrambling to try to accommodate requests for advice that goes far beyond normal bounds.

Not only is it a holding-company review, so near to the hearts of the marketing conglomerates because they justify the umbrella organizations that arch over their myriad agencies, there's the $90 million to $100 million revenue figure the PC maker is throwing around. That's a huge chunk of change, much bigger than the real revenue numbers behind the massive media billings quoted for Bank of America or Wal-Mart--the last major marketers to seek a holding-company solution.

Omnicom, WPP, Publicis, Interpublic and Havas all have taken the bait. That's despite the fact that executives who have been involved with the review fear that the $100 million may never materialize. Those who have been through it before also are keenly aware that these holding-company pitches can end up as ego exercises for marketing chiefs who like the idea of creating a unique new agency structure tailored to their needs, while creating unwieldy, bureaucratic organizations that make execution more difficult.

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