OPR's umbrella takes shape ☂️
By merging Golin and Ketchum and integrating Porter Novelli into FleishmanHillard, Omnicom Public Relations is seeking to simplify the largest PR group ever assembled, as client needs become more complex.
Two months after Omnicom acquired Interpublic, we finally have some answers as to how Chris Foster plans to structure the $3.2bn+ in PR agency assets under his control. Opportunities of this scale do not present themselves often, so there is logic in moves to reshape the mammoth portfolio.
Weighing in at more than 5,000 in headcount, it is worth noting that Omnicom PR (OPR) is not only the industry's biggest P&L, but the biggest ever assembled. There seems little doubt that a less unwieldy state of affairs will encourage growth, something that the OPR CEO indicated at PRAXIS India last year.
In merging Ketchum and Golin, while integrating Porter Novelli as a brand within FleishmanHillard, OPR now appears to control three of the world's five biggest PR networks in Weber Shandwick, FleishmanHillard and the yet-to-be-renamed Golin Ketchum. As to whether this kind of scale remains as competitive an advantage as it might once have been, remains to be seen.
