Philippe Krakowsky

During what was supposed to be a quarter marked by financial uncertainty, IPG did slightly better than expected.

IPG buying Node continues the trend of agencies trying new business models; IPG and Publicis support principal-based buying while WPP opposes it; and billionaire owners believe controlling their newsrooms will win back public trust.

In today’s newsletter: President Joe Biden signs the TikTok ban into law; upscale grocery and convenience store chain Foxtrot closes down; and IPG has a rough Q1.

IPG struggled in 2023 as tech clients slashed their ad spend and its digital agencies underperformed.

IPG is floundering. The agency holding company was roughed up in the first two quarters of 2023, and its organic revenue growth declined by 0.4%, with a 1.2% decrease in the US, according to an earnings report on Friday.  

Organic revenue growth for IPG sank 1.7% YOY, with a 2.5% drop in the US. The holding company said a weakened tech sector is partly to blame.

When it comes to data, IPG CEO Michael Roth has said in the past: “Why buy it when you can rent it?” But that thinking changed last year when Acxiom went up for sale. When IPG bought Acxiom, it was able to build new offerings around first-party data management. In October IPG launched Kinesso, a […]

IPG revealed a series of changes to its executive suite on Monday that brings media leadership to the top of the organization. Philippe Krakowsky, IPG’s chief strategy and talent officer and CEO of IPG Mediabrands, will assume the newly-created position of chief operating officer. He will retain his duties as chief strategy and talent officer […]

One of the many pressures facing holding companies is increased competition from management and IT consultancies like Accenture, Deloitte, IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers. While consulting firms may not be their biggest threat today, tomorrow could be another story. Holding companies tend to work from the bottom up, focusing on marketing initiatives like creative or media strategy […]

Last week, IPG Mediabrands global CEO Henry Tajer announced he will leave the company and head back to Australia for personal reasons. But executive politics and challenges facing media agencies also factored into his departure. Tajer, a 10-year veteran of IPG Mediabrands, became global head in 2015 after a successful stint as CEO of Mediabrands […]