• Advertising Age, Monday, August 4, 2008 10:45 AM

As ad cutbacks roil TV networks and newspaper publishers, the recession has yet to make a big dent in the multinational companies that create and place the advertising. Ironically, agency holding companies seem to be better-positioned than their media-selling brethren.

Omnicom, WPP, Interpublic and Publicis are significantly exposed to an economy that has gone south, but they are keeping cool because of their success in diversifying into non-ad disciplines such as digital marketing, customer-relationship management and public relations. Another benefit is their presence in international markets that are rapidly growing, even in tough times.

It's an interesting twist when "you consider how the holding-company model has been blamed for sucking the creativity and freedom out of the ad business in a quest for margins at all costs" and did not always make clear what the parent-company advantages were. One distinct advantage: recession resistance.

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