Which Golden Girl is WPP most like?

Kumiko McCoy (0:01)

I figured out my pop cultural reference. It's probably going to be The Golden Girls. Probably, it is.

Michael Burgi (0:09)

That tracks.

Seb Joseph (0:11)

That's amazing.

Kumiko McCoy (0:13)

Thank you for being a friend.

Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of The Digiday Podcast, a show for anyone wondering which Golden Girl WPP is most like. I'm Kumiko McCoy, Senior Marketing Reporter here at Digiday.

Tim Peterson (0:38)

And I'm Tim Peterson, Executive Editor of Video and Audio at Digiday Media, and someone who is very excited to learn about both the state of play among agencies but also Golden Girls. Because Kumiko, you are a Golden Girls fanatic, and we've found an episode for you to just put that expertise on display for everyone.

Kumiko McCoy (1:00)

Absolutely, 100%.

I won't spoil which Golden Girl I think the hold coat is, right? Because we've got two fantastic guests with us who are also going to help us pick this apart. But I am a rabid Golden Girls fan. For those that can't see the background, it is the living room of the Golden Girls. I'm here with my Golden Girls mug. So excited to get into it.

Tim Peterson (1:20)

I will not be using Golden Girls, although, God, I wish I had some thought of something as creative as that.

But using Golden Girls to handicap the different agency holding companies. I'm going to use sports teams basically with everything that's been going on in the agency landscape over the past year between WPP getting a new CEO, Omnicom closing its acquisition of IPG, Publicis just steamrolling everything in the marketplace. Now, most recently with Pepsi moving its business to Publicis without a review, and there being all of this palace intrigue around what's going to happen with Coke, which agencies it's going to land with. Then this episode is going out during advertising week, felt like a perfect time to check in on the state of play among the major agency holding companies. For that, we had to bring in our Executive Editor of News, Seb Joseph and our Senior Media Buying Editor, Michael Burgi. Seb, Michael, welcome to the show.

Seb Joseph (2:21)

Thanks for having us.

Michael Burgi (2:23)

Thank you.

Tim Peterson (2:25)

We all got our assignments. We are going to be talking about the big three agency holding companies, and Dentsu, which is on the bubble as potentially a big four, depending on, for one thing, what happens with this Coca-Cola review. But Seb, Michael, you both and I, I think came up with sports teams or sports figures as comps for the major agencies. Kamiko went a different way. She went with The Golden Girls as the comps. But before we get into what our comps are for each of these agencies, Michael, let's talk a bit about this Pepsi Coke thing. Like so Pepsi is gone with Publicis, and now it seems like the big question is, where does Coke end up? Who are the contenders here for Coke?

Michael Burgi (3:15)

The main contenders for Coke, it depends on whether you're talking about kind of overseas or in North America. In North America right now, it appears Omnicom and Dentsu are the two main competitors.

Well, I think the biggest change is the fact that Coca-Cola is now the biggest company in the world to win Coca-Cola's North American media business, which, if you'll remember, about 18 months ago, Publicis took out of WPP's hands very, very surreptitiously. And that's why everyone thought, you know, You know, Publicis and Coke, we're gonna have this marvelous, beautiful relationship. And then... Just, what is it, six weeks ago, Publicis went and kind of surreptitiously took Pepsi's They're. both business away from Omnicom, where it had been for the better part of 25, 30 years. I mean, a long standing relationship. And suddenly overnight, it's in Publicis hands, which is why Publicis then walked away from winning Coke's global business. This is really, maybe we should make these comparisons in terms of soap operas, because this is what it feels like.

So, and then overseas, outside of the United States and North America, it depends on the region, but it looks like WPP is going to retain most of the business that it had overseas, with the exception of Japan and Korea, which is being handled by Dentsu.

Tim Peterson (4:41)

Okay. And so-

Michael Burgi (4:43)

Is that clear enough?

Tim Peterson (4:44)

Not at all, but I'm sure we're going to get into it. But there's also like, Seb, how is this shaking up the hierarchy among the major agencies? Because it feels like pretty clear this was the case before the Pepsi Coke review has only been confirmed by like, Publicis seems to be the top dog in the space, but WPP has a new CEO, Omnicom IPG, they are now integrating those two companies. Dentsu primarily plays in Japan, obviously has a foothold outside of Japan, but that's really like its strong market.