Sir Martin Sorrell has criticised the Publicis Omnicom merger, branding it “POG” and saying it will be “structurally clunky”.
Speaking in London yesterday as he presented WPP’s half-yearly earnings, the WPP CEO dismissed the idea that the merger will result in a strong big data capability for the new company.
The UK’s Ad Age reports that Sorrell poked fun at the “POG” name. WPP charts depicted “POG” in what he described as a “sludgy brown colour”, which, he said, is the colour you get when you mix Publicis’ corporate purple with Omnicom’s orange.
Sorrell also branded the merger, which was announced last month, a “180-degree turn for both companies”.
Tackling the data issue, Sorrell told the meeting: “WPP has a real big data business where we own the data. We have access to the data. We don’t buy third party data. For Publicis Omnicom there is no big data business. it might exist in the figment of the imagination above the Arc de Triomphe, but where’s the beef?”
Reporting WPP’s profits and outlook, Sorrell said the company’s half-year pre-tax profit increased by 19% to £427m ($663m) off the back of a 7.1% rise in revenues.
