Twelve months ago, Havas and Horizon Media looked at an agency landscape squeezed dry by consolidation and spotted an opening. Omnicom swallowed IPG, the roster of holding companies shrank again, and Horizon Global entered the room as the agile alternative. The thesis was clean on paper. The pitch deck had shiny charts.
Now the tally is in for year one: zero statement accounts. The venture has "yet to land a statement win to prove its viability to other clients," which is polite industry trade phrasing for pitching for 365 days and coming up empty.
The leadership table has its own explanation ready. The problem is not the offer. The problem is that marketers and review consultants "aren’t yet ready to accept its compensation model and approach to technology."
Sure. Let's blame the consultants. Or we can look at the staffing chart, where the venture's top brass remain openly "tethered to their day jobs" at their respective parent shops. Pitching global media consolidation requires convincing a chief marketing officer to hand over hundreds of millions in ad spend. Doing that while the executives running the pitch are moonlighting between their actual corporate responsibilities is an audacious trade.
Procurement departments may be slow, but they can spot a joint-venture committee meeting masquerading as an agency network. When a brand signs with a global media shop, it wants someone on the hook if the Q4 buying schedule detonates. It rarely awards nine-figure billings to leaders who have to check their other calendar first.