• by September 22, 2005

THE FRENCH CONNECTION -- If you think about it, it shouldn't be surprising that French companies like Havas and Publicis would be particularly interested in Aegis Group. There's a strong French connection there that goes beyond simple business plans, including a fair amount of national pride. For those unfamiliar with the history of the global media services marketplace, Aegis was formed in the mid-1990s on the basis of Carat, a formerly Paris-based media buying independent known in that country as Carat Espace, which expatriated to London when its media buying practices were deemed detestable by the French media community, and illegal by the French government. So Carat left the market - as its headquarters, anyway - licking its wounds, and setting up shop in the U.K. with a new parent company brand name: Aegis.

But the French wounds never healed, and likely have been galled by the fact that the Brits have managed to it all so well - better even - than the French ever could. In fact, in less than a decade, Aegis has not only rehabilitated the Carat name, transforming it into one of, if not the strongest media services brand in the world, but has also spun off some impressive new media networks, including its "challenger brand" Vizeum, global outdoor media network Posterscope, and burgeoning digital media network Isobar. And let's not forget the juicy research assets inside Synovate, the marketing and media research unit.

In fact, it was research and a reputation for more strategic planning that helped transform the Carat, and establish the Aegis brands. When Carat was looking to break into the U.S. marketplace - a market that accounts for slightly more than half the world's advertising spending - it realized it couldn't make a dent simply as a buying shop. Madison Avenue's biggies had already begun consolidating and represented far too much marketplace clout for Carat to ever get noticed. Instead, Carat muscled its way in with its gray matter, acquiring research assets like MMA, the plumb marketing mix modeling firm that was transforming the ad plans of the world's biggest packaged goods marketers, and Copernicus.

That, ironically, would make Aegis a choice asset for Martin Sorrell's WPP Group. But Sorrell is feeling sore after one too many recent acquisitions and it doesn't look like he'll be able to muster a bid - or as the French might say to Sir Martin: "Bid adieu."

Sure, it's quite possible that the U.S.-based omnivores at Omnicom might be the ones to step forward with the winning Aegis bid, but the French appear to have a sense of national imperative, and we're no experts on French marketplace law, but we wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing isn't somehow rigged - and if Havas and Publicis are in some way in cahoots on this deal. Stranger things have been speculated on, including that the French government might ask Publicis to step in and offer a helping hand to a beleaguered Havas. That was before a new dynamic force stepped into Havas: French corporate raider Vincent Bollore.

So it's fitting that Bollore was the one to get the whole Aegis play going, making his initial 6 percent stake in the Brits, essentially a no-lose proposition for Bollore. Either he musters enough of a stake to take the Aegis prize, or he helps push up the bidding to the point where the makes a tidy profit on the whole spectacle.

It's also fitting - and maybe telling - that news of Publicis entry in the game of Aegis tag was broken by French newspaper Les Echos.

Parlez-vous collusion? Nah, just a different culture and way of doing things.

The only question we have for Publicis chief Maurice Levy is did he speak to big client Procter & Gamble before he made the offer to Aegis? We sure hope so, for Publicis' sake. From what we hear, P&G likes to be informed of such matters, especially when it has one of its most important advertising accounts - its communications planning assignment - split between the suitor (Publicis' Starcom MediaVest Group) and the acquisition target (Aegis' Carat). Now that's a plan.