Marketers intend to cut spend on traditional advertising and up their investment in direct marketing and interactive services, according to a survey carried out jointly by Paris-headquartered global agency holding company Havas and the London Business School.
So clear and unambiguous is this trend – which came to light during a three-year review of the group’s complex structure – that Havas plans to merge all local units of every marketing discipline into a single agency in each of four major European ad economies: Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK. All will carry the name Euro RSCG Partners.
This replicates moves already executed in France and the US, the latter's integration of communications, marketing and advertising operations yielding a 10% increase in revenues and 5% reduction in operating costs. Once consolidated in Europe, Havas plans to roll-out the concept across the other sixty-nine nations in which it does business.
Says Euro RSCG president/chairman Bob Schmetterer: “We’re creating an integrated agency and we think it's a model that others in the industry will follow. The goal is to have every major market in the world reorganised by the end of next year.”
A new model for a new century?
Not quite, note marketing greybeards, recalling the fifties and sixties when every agency of standing would offer its clients the complete spectrum of marketing services from TV commercials to media to brand promos to direct mail to brand evaluation. Plus ça change …!
Data sourced from: Financial Times; additional content by WARC staff
