Month: January 2025

From Getty acquiring Shutterstock to Bauer buying Clear Channel and Publicis bringing together Leo Burnett Global and Publicis Worldwide, it’s been a busy start to the year for M&A. Green Square’s Tony Walford tells us what to expect in the weeks and months ahead. What a start to 2025! Trump back in, economic and political turmoil in the UK, France and Germany and the Middle East (but hopefully now resolved) and Russia-Ukraine continuing to present challenges, albeit Trump reckons he can fix the latter in a stroke. Given this background, it’s understandable to anticipate a slowdown in investment and M&A whilst people wait to see what the US administration will bring and also how the UK economy pans out. That said, hot on the heels of the Omnicom-IPG announcement at the very back end of 2024, this year started with a couple of significant acquisitions. Getty is acquiring Shutterstock in a merger that will value the combined company at $3.7bn and Bauer is buying Clear Channel Europe-North for $625m. Given current global macroeconomic uncertainty, the question is whether the nature of these three deals points to a potential trend in M&A for the coming year. While trying to predict this year’s theme so early on would only set me up to look a fool (no comments please), there is a common thread across these three transactions, which is consolidation. And as I write, the news of Leo Burnett and Publicis Worldwide coming together under the name Leo is reverberating – it’s not M&A, but it’s certainly consolidation. There’s been plenty of press comment around Omnicom-IPG and its proposed restructuring, so there’s no need to repeat that here. That’s consolidation in its purest form in an increasingly competitive and changing market… two legacy global networks huddling together to keep warm, cutting costs and aiming to knock Publicis off its recently claimed position as ‘Top Dog’ (while the Top Dog itself begins internal huddling together under Leo). So, let’s concentrate on the Getty and Bauer deals. First, Getty-Shutterstock is about controlling more of an already declining image market, protecting its position through cutting costs (estimated annual savings are up to $200m after three years) and facing up to the threat that AI image generation brings. The combined entity will control nearly half of the global image market with a massive library of approximately one billion stock images, videos, GIFs and the like. Image prices are being driven down, photographers are (sadly) being paid less and the market has become commoditised. On the face of it, this replicates the Kwik-Save store mentality of the 1980s, “pile it high and sell it cheap,” but generative AI tools, such as Midjourney and OpenAI’s Dall-E, are major threats to the traditional image market. Getty is not only trying to consolidate its position as the place to go by offering a broader and deeper content library, but wants to outpace competitors by developing its own AI-powered tools for image search, editing and generation. It hopes that its vast, merged combined repository will provide the biggest pool in the world to train its machine learning tools on. In comparison, while Bauer-Clear Channel is also about consolidating across media platforms, it’s not simply about size, market share and defensiveness. Bauer has a suite of media assets in magazines, including Grazia and Heat, and radio with Absolute, Magic and Kiss to name just a few. By adding out-of-home it significantly extends its offering to advertisers and the opportunity to seamlessly sell media across a broader set of formats. It’s interesting that in buying the North European elements of Clear Channel, Bauer has stuck to its local markets – those which it understands. It already operates in 7 of the 12 markets Clear Channel brings, so there’s a degree of risk mitigation, which brings me on to another point – trust. Trust in news media is being eroded. There’s a constant onslaught of political influence across the various news platforms, some much more biased than others. Not to mention Elon Musk using his own platform, X, to have a pop at the UK’s Labour government as well as Nigel Farage (who must be particularly sore, given his prior constant praise for the guy). With polar-opposite opinions and spins being put on our ‘news’, and out-of-context comments and fake imagery being broadcast globally, people no longer know what to believe. The cancel culture still exists, but people are becoming a bit more suspicious of the information that’s being doled out and less knee-jerky before making a decision. And if the public is trusting news media less and less, how does this translate into the trust people place in those brands that advertise on it? One of our Green Square client alumni, Jack Horner (formerly of FRUKT, which Green Square sold to IPG, and now a founder of local media specialist, Nearfield), suggests local media news is considered far more authentic. While it tends to be “local news for local people,” the proximity of the matters being reported means it’s far more likely that fake news will be called out and local news platforms are hugely at risk should they lose trust. When something major happens locally, for example the dreadful fires in California, I can’t imagine residents would choose CNN or Fox over the Los Angeles Times to get a more detailed picture of what is happening. In turn, this trust in local media can extend to advertisers. We all know brands must earn trust, but being seen in a place where authenticity already exists is a good start. It could be deemed smart to shift a more sizable element of advertising and events budgets to regional media outlets, allowing brands to connect and engage with local communities, in turn garnering more trust, loyalty and ultimately becoming part of their ecosystem. Out-of-home, or local radio, seem pretty smart places to be. Another fear for brands is one where their adverts appear next to inappropriate or extreme content. In a world where media trust is diminishing, has this risk shifted to brands potentially being seen as inauthentic depending on their media placement? Again, out-of-home, or local radio seem pretty smart places to be… As an aside, the LA Times is owned by billionaire entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong, who also owns the San Diego Union Tribune and other California news outlets. He acquired them with the specific intention of bringing more “fair and balanced” news, representing all views and, in late 2024, he controversially prevented the paper endorsing a single election candidate (in this case, Kamala Harris). He also fired the entire board in his ongoing quest to “restore balance.” Whichever way you look at it, given the size of the readership, this is local media at scale. Coming back to the outlook for 2025, while in tricky times we tend to see consolidation, my wish-list for this year includes it being about restoring trust, particularly in media content. The purpose, ESG and diversity agendas have rightly had most prominence in recent times, but what use is purpose without trust? It will be a shame if this year ends up being mostly about consolidation in an increasingly unstable world. M&A should be all about gaining complementary skills and services, which improve and extend client offerings, not just offering more of the same. That’s boring. Bigger isn’t better. Better is better, and the best acquisitions are those that augment people’s lives in some way. I’d like to think as we specifically look toward content that shapes so much of our day-to-day decision making, trust and authenticity will be higher on the agenda when looking at M&A. Read more

Discussing the evolution of the business since its merging with the global consultancy, chief executive Chris Mellish outlines why Unlimited is only just getting started. UNLIMITED is riding the crest of a wave right now, and there are no signs of that slowing down anytime soon. The business has just picked up the McDonald’s customer relationship management account for the UK and Ireland, continuing a hot streak on the new business front. The group consists of integrated creative agency TMW, Walnut, UNLIMITED’s market research agency, B2B communications and content marketing agency, Nelson Bostock, and healthcare comms agency Health Unlimited. UNLIMITED is being integrated to scale Accenture Song’s Al abilities and underline its evolving creative credentials. Until early this year, a case could be made for the group being unintentionally one of the best-kept secrets in the advertising community despite it being 38 years old, employing over 600 people, winning numerous awards and working for clients such as the Cabinet Office, Canon and Vodafone. Last year, TMW alone won 24 pitches, totaling £7.9 million in new revenue, including Suzuki, Oak Furnitureland, People’s Postcode Lottery and Rail Delivery Group. But in April, things certainly changed when the group was acquired by one of the world’s largest business consultancies, Accenture, to become part of its creative arm, Accenture Song, which has heightened its new business pipeline even further due to its substantially strengthened offer. Tony Walford, founder of Green Square which handles mergers and acquisitions, describes the deal as having “a smart rationale” that will bring “specialist elements to Accenture Song’s broader offer.” Now, the group sits proudly alongside major agency names such as Droga5. Within just six months the acquisition has already begun to bear fruit having just won McDonald’s CRM account, something it would have been unlikely to have achieved without the collective might of its new parent company. Michelle Graham-Clare, CMO UK and Ireland for McDonald’s UK and Ireland says of the hire: “TMW demonstrated a true passion for our brand. Their use of customer data, strategic thinking, as well as creativity was exceptional and we look forward to utilising this partnership as a way to build world-class CRM that delights our customers at every touchpoint.”

Ambitious Leadership

Chris Mellish, group chief executive of UNLIMITED, sees the move as part of the leadership team’s collective drive to take on the traditional agency networks from which many of them have heralded. Mellish, who always comes across as a calm and approachable leader, has a great ambition for UNLIMITED’s progress. A former president of BIMA, Mellish has spent more than two decades developing digital marketing solutions. He joined the business in 2019 from Razorfish where he spent 14 years, to become the chief executive of TMW before being promoted to lead UNLIMITED last year. UNLIMITED has a clear point of difference, he believes, through its modern integrated offer alongside its deeper understanding of consumers through behavioural and neuroscience as part of its Human Understanding Lab launched in 2022. “Five years ago, we made the decision to put PhD-level thinking at the heart of everything we do and combine that with our unique perspective on integrating the customer journey. It’s really struck a chord with the market and we’ve seen an incredible period of growth.” That has been exemplified in Accenture Song being named on McDonald’s CRM Agency Roster, with TMW leading the pitch in the UK and Ireland, subsequently becoming the first agency appointed as part of the global roster review. Accenture offered scale and expertise to support the process, but TMW led on both creative and strategy. Mellish explains that the proposition around “true integration” was something he held a strong belief in when it came to delivering stronger customer engagement calendars “more inspiring” and integrated campaigns “more effective” for clients. Now, he feels that is self- evident following the positive response by the McDonald’s team. “This was our first opportunity to pitch alongside the rest of the Accenture Song, and it has demonstrated immediately the scale and potency that we have added to each other’s offerings,” he continues.

Break On Through

Debut campaigns for new clients have been released in recent months, showcasing an evolution in strength. That included TMW’s first work for Suzuki offering a very different type of car ad. Its campaign was designed to help the Suzuki Swift stand out against ‘increasingly formulaic ads’, presenting the different lengths that owners would go to just to keep the car from growing in popularity. The creative agency also supported the launch of on demand TV service Freely, from BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5 and the “Enhance Performance, Legally” campaign for sports nutrition brand Bulk which proved deliberately provocative. Elsewhere, through its long-standing consortium with Pablo, the first campaign was released to help ‘humanise’ HMRC under the ‘You’re On It’ platform. Released in November, it highlights the British tax authority’s ambition to increase the number of users of its app to six million people. That consortium was also appointed to take on the Government’s key climate account earlier this year. Described as “The Breakthrough Agenda” it saw UNLIMITED beat out rostered agencies on the Government communications framework to be appointed as the agency of record for The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero‘s initiative, which aims to strengthen international collaborations around clean technology development and sustainable solutions. The brief includes website design and development, social strategy, and content creation and PR around key periods, managed by bespoke specialists across the network agencies, including TMWX, TMW Tomorrow and Nelson Bostock. Mellish believes that clients have bought into how it helps brands manage their communications efficiently and effectively through a simple ‘honed down’ approach that they understand, while the positive culture around the business that talked about driving performance and effectiveness also resonated. And now his challenge is to integrate that all within Accenture Song while building scale, without losing those core, appealing strengths. “Together, we are building a new agency model that enhances our ability to deliver comprehensive, elevated solutions that better serve our client’s evolving needs,” he states enthusiastically.” Mellish is relishing taking the offer and working alongside the established parts of Accenture Song to move beyond its UK-centric footprint and build further. He describes the breadth of the business as “enormous” – a word he also uses to describe the new opportunities. With Accenture’s backing, UNLIMITED has also considerably strengthened its technological capabilities. “The most topical example is probably AI, where billions are being invested, and the breadth and depth of expertise throughout Accenture is incredible. Since becoming part of Song, we’re now lucky to have access to world-leading experts across every specialism or technology you could ever think of.” Subsequently, Mellish is now part of the Accenture Song leadership team reporting into Sohel Aziz, the managing director for UK, Ireland and Africa.

Clear Signs Of Progress

The McDonald’s win is a clear sign of UNLIMITED’s progress as it competes for what Mellish sees as being “more innovative briefs” with the Accenture Song fold. He sees bigger brands and a bigger scale prove exciting for the team, with early evidence that the mix is working. “We’ve had a huge wave of success over the past few years, but we’re now working on certain briefs that we simply wouldn’t have seen before. It’s exciting thar our big ambitions have started to become reality almost immediately. McDonald’s is the perfect case in point. The response from staff has been amazing – our employee engagement numbers have got even better this year.” Speaking to Creative Salon when the acquisition was announced in April, Dame Annette King said that UNLIMITED had proven in recent years to be “one of the industry’s strongest offerings across the board.” She continues: “Their capabilities and expertise have driven incredible performance for their clients – all of which has been underpinned by a culture where people genuinely love where they work and are proud of the work they put out in the world. Their unique skill sets are complementary to what we already have at Song but what was evident from the outset was how these could be supercharged by what we do. Particularly when it comes to our Gen Al offering that we know is a central focus for clients everywhere.” Moving forward, Mellish intends to ensure that more brands experience the capabilities of the group. “We’ve already built an approach that drives both great creativity and real business results for our clients. With this bigger platform, I’m excited that many more brands will get the opportunity to see that firsthand.”