Steven Hanratty’s Post

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Co-Founder & Creative Partner at The Builders Arms

Just a few years ago, WPP merged four huge agencies into two mega agencies. JWT and Wunderman became Wunderman Thompson. And Y&R and VML became VMLY&R. Just yesterday, the cheeses at WPP announced that Wunderman Thompson and VMLY&R are to merge into a new colossal mega whopper agency VML. Ok so they recognised that Wunderman Thompson VMLY&R would have been a bit of a mouthful - excellent work - but VML isn't the brand name that both JWT and Y&R were with their storied histories. However, all things must pass, and beancounters don't care about history, legacy, or fluffy stuff like that. They care about scale, efficiency, and saving a few bucks on real estate. But what about the clients? Sure, multinational corporations like Ford, Unilever, P&G and Nestle probably welcome an agency the size of a small moon (That's not a moon!), but there are many clients who'll just get lost in the machine. Can you imagine how long Traffic would take to get revisions through planning, account management, creative, and signed off by the Grand Moff. Civilisations rise and fall in less time. Maybe some clients should take the lead from an iconic VW ad from those Mad Men days (I'm a sucker for history, legacy and fluffy stuff like that) and 'think small'. The Builders Arms Creative

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Craig Ward

Brand Design Director / Creative Director / Founder

12mo

Spoiler alert: the clients took it all in-house for precisely that reason.

Philip SLADE

Brand Strategist, Mentor and writer of words.

1y

Steven Hanratty spot on mate as ever. Its the teams caught in the middle of it I feel sorry for. Suddenly you find you are part of Mega corp' run by people in totally different dimensions to you.

Joe Burton

Seasoned CEO, President, COO, Board Advisor, Author & Speaker - Former Founder & CEO, Whil, and first President of Headspace and Firstup

1y

A different take is - are they really mergers of successful giants or long suffering brands? Is this strategic brilliance or more cost cutting by combination? The more initials in a long (and increasingly ridiculous) agency name would suggest the latter. I remember the winding and unwinding of the Y&R / Wunderman “partnership” back in the day. For those who lived through it, it was a painful farce.

Luke Beauchamp FRSA

Freelance consultant in the content creation space. Former Regional Production Lead & Managing Advisor EMEA APR, Charity:Water UK Board of Trustees Member, AdGreen Global Group

1y

Does anyone even know who the V, M, and L are/were? We've lost the recognition of the great creatives who built our industry

Teresa Alpert

Senior Director / Head of Brand Strategy

1y

Well said, Steven. If not for caring business people like those at The Builders Arms, clients would find themselves in a ‘frictionless’, automated marketing process that spits out metrics, analytics, and lead-gen banners that go nowhere. The power of brand and emotion is undisputed. Brands=business and Business=brand. Thank you for reminding us to keep the faith, heart and soul in the work we do. Luv ya! ♥️

Alastair Patrick

Marketing Director (Developments)

1y

For a company that’s core purpose is to build brand equity in its clients brands how is it they have no idea to represent what they’re experts in?

you mean '...welcome an agency the size of a planet killing machine'

Robert Schmidt

chairman at Ubiquitous Media

1y

Nah!!not the ad business..never again! Not the good old days..

Long live the boutique agencies and shops ❤️

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