Hasta La Creative!

Omnicom has has just announced the appointment of Peter Sherman as executive vice president, where he will “report directly to John Wren on a series of major initiatives that include driving innovation and collaboration across the holding company’s client portfolio.”

Sherman joins Omnicom from JWT, where he served as CEO, North America, managing client relationships while overseeing the strategic direction and creative reputation of the region. He joined JWT in June of last year as CEO of its New York office and was promoted to CEO, North America in December. The agency had several important client wins during his time there. Prior to JWT, Sherman was executive vice president and managing director of BBDO Europe, leading 35 BBDO offices in 18 countries across the continent. Before the move, Sherman spent nearly five years as managing director of BBDO West in San Francisco, following eight years at BBDO New York during which he rose to executive vice president and senior account director.

“Peter has a proven track record of effectively managing some of BBDO’s largest clients and he certainly exemplifies our culture of creativity, collaboration and integrity,” said John Wren, president and CEO of Omnicom Group. “His global experience in multiple categories is perfect for the role of strengthening our relationships with our biggest clients by providing them with better and more integrated services. I am delighted he is returning to Omnicom.”

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In a somewhat surprising weekend move that’s now been broadcast everywhere, French advertising network Publicis and New York-based Omnicom Group announced today that they are merging, supplanting London’s WPP to become to world’s largest advertising firm.

The news comes as a bit of a shock, especially considering the announcement was made on a summer weekend. Reports of merger negotiations first happened on Friday afternoon, followed by more concrete details on the merger coming out yesterday via a report from Bloomberg. The newly christened Publicis Omnicom Group will be led by Omnicom CEO John Wren and Publicis CEO Maurice Levy, who will acts as co-chief executives.

The merger is sending shockwaves throughout the industry, with reaction to news quite mixed. While many agree that shareholders will benefit from the news, looming doubts remain about how the new company will strike a balance of power with its bases split between continents, as well as how Publicis Omnicom Group will go about solving the many client conflicts as competing brands (Coca-Cola and Pepsi, McDonald’s and Taco Bell) are brought under one roof.

Omnicom (whose properties include BBDO, DDB, and TBWA) and Publicis (whose properties include Leo Burnett, DigitasLBi, Saatchi & Saatchi and media giant Starcom) have a combined annual revenue of $23 billion. We’ve heard that Levy has sent out a network-wide email about the merger.

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