• by Wayne Friedman , May 1, 2008

WPP Group's branded-entertainment activities will get a little stronger by combining its two major divisions--one from its creative agency side and one from its media agency side.

Forming a joint venture, GroupM's GroupM Entertainment and Ogilvy North America's OgilvyEntertainment will combine to seek out what it says is "brand-funded entertainment content" for all its media and creative clients.

GroupM Entertainment CEO Peter Tortorici will manage the co-venture, and Doug Scott, president of OgilvyEntertainment, will report to Tortorici and Bill Gray and Carla Hendra, Ogilvy North America Co-CEOs.

U.S. clients currently shared by both GroupM Entertainment and Ogilvy include American Express, IBM and Unilever. Ogilvy's recent notable efforts included working in Unilever's Pond brand into the story line of last summer's USA Network limited series, "The Starter Wife."

GroupM has produced on-and-off-again drama "October Road" for ABC. With this business model, GroupM pays for a piece of the production costs and splits the advertising time with ABC.

In 2004, another drama, "The Days," also went to ABC. This time, WPP Group client Unilever became a charter advertiser and took an ownership stake.