Omnicom Group

Omnicom Group is the world's third-largest advertising conglomerate (behind Interpublic and WPP in billings). It has three global agency networks - BBDO Worldwide, DDB Worldwide, and TBWA Worldwide - and US agencies such as Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Chiat/Day and GSD&M. Like its competitors it also includes several direct marketing, media buying and public relations units such as Wolf-Olins and has a stake in online services firm AGENCY.COM. source [1]

Omnicom's revenue rose by 4.1 percent in 2014, with an increase of 8.5 percent in the fourth quarter of the year.

PR firms

Omnicom revenues in 2001 were $6,889 million. The Omnicom Group organises its PR work under the umbrella of The Diversified Agency Services (DAS). DAS comprises over100 companies, which operate through a combination of networks and regional organizations. They serve international and local clients through 600 offices in over 65 countries. DAS includes three of the top seven public relations firms in the world, Fleishman Hillard, Ketchum, and Porter Novelli International, as well as specialist agencies including Brodeur Worldwide, Clark & Weinstock, Gavin Anderson & Company, and Cone. According to the 2001 Omnicom annual report: 'our agencies have more than 5,000 active client relationships in the aggregate. Our single largest client in 2001 DaimlerChrysler represented 5.4% of worldwide revenue [about $350 million] and no other client represented more than 2.5%. Our 10 largest and 200 largest clients represented 17.0% and 48.0% [average spend of $17 million] of our worldwide revenue, respectively' (Omnicom, 2001, p. 14)

Advertising

The group's three global advertising networks are -

BBDO Worldwide - has around 350 offices in 76 countries.

DDB Worldwide (centred on the former Doyle Dane Bernbach Needham) - has 206 offices in 99 countries and as of 2001 was the second largest agency network in the US on the basis of consolidated gross income.

TBWA - has 225 offices in 72 countries

Marketing services and customer relationship management units include major direct marketing businesses such as Rapp Collins, public relations agencies such as Fleishman-Hillard and specialists such as Doremus

Omnicom secretive and hostile to the press

O'Dwyer's reports:

John Wren and Omnicom made spectacles of themselves by holding the OMC annual stockholders meeting in a room in its BBDO unit in Atlanta. The attendance of 24 was far below the 160 that smaller ad conglomerate Interpublic faced the week before at a public auditorium in New York. A half dozen irate stockholders raked IPG execs over the coals and the New York Times devoted 15 inches of type to this shellacking. Omnicom, by fleeing to Atlanta, escaped any notice by the Times, Advertising Age, AdWeek or even the local Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The sole reporter at the OMC meeting was a free-lancer hired by this website. The freelancer walked into the meeting room without any requests for identification, which says a lot about the security at BBDO. Only when the freelancer asked some questions was identity demanded. A BBDO staffer asked to see the driver's license of the freelancer. The writer held an OMC proxy supplied by The O'Dwyer Co. When the freelancer tried to ask additional questions, having received only minimal replies, the freelancer was told that the meeting was over and was escorted out of the room to the elevators.This openly hostile treatment of the press, including the refusal to discuss complicated financial matters, stands on its head every known principle of PR, starting with "face the bad news and get over it."[2]

Board of Directors

• Bruce Crawford Chairman, Chairman of the Finance Committee
• John D. Wren President and Chief Executive Officer
• Robert Charles Clark, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, Harvard Law School, Member of the Audit, Qualified Legal Compliance and Governance Committees
• Leonard S. Coleman, Jr., Senior Advisor, National League, Major League Baseball, Former Chairman, Arena Co., Member of the Compensation and Governance Committees
• Errol M. Cook, Private Investor and Consultant, Former Managing Director, Warburg Pincus & Company, Member of the Audit and Qualified Legal Compliance Committees
• Susan S. Denison Partner, Cook Associates, Member of the Compensation and Governance Committees
• Michael A. Henning, Former Deputy Chairman, Ernst & Young, Member of the Audit and Qualified Legal Compliance Committees
• John R. Murphy Vice Chairman, National Geographic Society, Chairman of the Audit and Qualified Legal Compliance Committees and member of the Governance Committee
• John R. Purcell Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Grenadier Associates, Ltd. Chairman of the Governance Committee and member of the Finance Committee
• Linda Johnson Rice President & Chief Executive Officer, Johnson Publishing Co. Inc. Member of the Compensation and Governance Committees
• Gary L. Roubos Former Chairman, Dover Corporation, Chairman of the Compensation Committee and member of the Finance Committee

Subsidiaries

Global Advertising Brands

Omnicom Group includes three of the top 10 global advertising brands:

• 1. BBDO Worldwide

Subsidiaries:

AMV BBDO

Aurelia Public Relations

• 2. DDB Worldwide
• 3. TBWA Worldwide

National Advertising Agencies

Omnicom Group's national advertising agencies are renowned for strategic and creative excellence. National agencies include:

• Arnell Group
• Element 79 Partners
• Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
• GSD&M
• Martin/Williams
• Merkley & Partners
• Zimmerman Partners

Media Services

Omnicom Media Group (OMG)

• OMD Worldwide
• PHD Network

Media Specialist Solutions

• Novus Print Media
• Icon International
• Full Circle Entertainment

PR/Lobbying/Marketing Services

• Diversified Agency Services

Lobbying firms

Former lobbying firms

• Fleishman-Hillard

Further reading

• Bob Levenson, Bill Bernbach's Book: A History of the Advertising That Changed the History of Advertising (New York: Villard 1987).

• Mary Wells Lawrence A Big Life In Advertising (New York: Knopf 2002).

• Karen Stabiner, Inventing Desire: Inside Chiat/Day: The Hottest Shop, the Coolest Players, the Big Business of Advertising (New York: Simon & Schuster 1993).