In 2013, it was announced that Publicis Groupe and Omnicom would merge to form Publicis Omnicom Group, but the deal ended up falling through the following year. A few reasons have been cited behind the failed 35-billion-dollar “merger of equals,” including tax structures and struggles in reconciling different corporate cultures. In 2021, Omnicom beat Publicis in securing the account for Mercedes Benz’s global marketing; this led to the birth of Team X, a customized marketing agency tasked with handling every aspect of the German auto giant’s global communications.
Omnicom was founded in 1986 as a “big bang” merger between three of the largest U.S. advertising agencies - BBDO Worldwide, Doyle Dane Bernbach, and Needham Harper Worldwide. The group has been guided by President-CEO John Wren since 1997 and functions as the parent company of five agency networks - BBDO Worldwide, DDB Worldwide, Omnicom Media Group (OMG), Diversified Agency Services (DAS), and TBWA Worldwide.
As an international marketing and communications services company, Omnicom boasts over 74 thousand employees in 85 countries and generates nearly half of its revenue outside North America.
