WPP Chooses Ogilvy As New Home for CCG's 141 Unit

WPP Group is preparing to align 141 Worldwide, the marketing services company picked up in its purchase of Cordiant Communications Group, with Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, according to sources. 141's 91 offices in 57 countries will report to Ogilvy executives on a regional basis. The plan, expected to be complete by year's end, will allow Ogilvy to show a significantly greater footprint in the area of below-the-line services. Specifically, the agency network, which does direct, interactive and public relations work through its OgilvyOne, OgilvyInteractive and Ogilvy PR divisions, respectively, will add resources in two fast-growing categories: promotions, and sports and entertainment marketing. The 141 name is expected to remain, according to sources, in part to manage any conflicts that exist or could arise from the affiliation with Ogilvy. And while 141 will be a part of Ogilvy, sources said the relationship will not preclude the group from working with other WPP units or agencies outside the British holding company—another reason to keep the brand alive.Besides the discipline fit, 141's alignment with Ogilvy's below-the-line operation also makes sense, sources said, because the networks share several clients, including Kraft, Unilever and Coca-Cola. One such client, British American Tobacco, which last year put nearly $50 million in U.S. measured media behind its brands at the two agencies, is expected to consolidate its business with 141, sources said. Ogilvy handles BAT's Pall Mall domestically and other assignments globally, while 141 has the global Kool and duty-free accounts. One source said the consolidation would centralize the London-based tobacco company's above- and below-the-line marketing and advertising. Ogilvy Europe CEO Mike Walsh, who has led the agency's BAT account, will likely oversee the combined business, one source said. 141's London-based chief executive, Colin Hearn, resigned in July; his contract expires at the end of the year. He is considering several undisclosed options, according to sources. Hearn was on vacation last week and could not be reached.Jay Farrell heads up 141 in the Americas out of the Chicago office. Whether his role might change could not be determined. Farrell did not return calls. Marcus Starke, Herve Deville and Gavin Partridge spearhead 141 in Europe, Asia and Australia, respectively.141 has an estimated staff of 1,600. Its approximately 100 employees in New York are expected to remain in the Seventh Avenue U.S. headquarters of Bates Worldwide, the CCG shop that WPP is now dismantling. It is unclear whether the Ogilvy-141 union will result in layoffs or office closings. Meanwhile, WPP is still sorting out where to park some of Bates' clients. Sources said $35 million advertiser T. Rowe Price is talking to the New York office of WPP's J. Walter Thompson, which is in the process of absorbing Bates' $260 million Pfizer business. JWT client Merrill Lynch has raised no objections to potential ties with the mutual fund company, sources said. One of the first client defections following WPP's purchase of CCG last month was Bates' Cadbury-Schweppes non-chocolate, confectionary business. Two weeks ago the estimated $60 million account moved to Interpublic Group's McCann-Erickson in New York.WPP chief executive Martin Sorrell closed on the $16 million acquisition of CCG Aug. 1 after a somewhat convoluted three-month struggle for control of the troubled British holding company. The players in that drama included Nahed Ojjeh, a Paris-based chess promoter who acquired more than 10 percent of CCG in its last days of trading, and Active Value, CCG's largest shareholder, which threatened to veto the deal. 141 representatives referred inquiries to WPP officials, who could not be reached.

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WPP Chooses Ogilvy As New Home for CCG's 141 Unit

Kathleen Sampey

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Kathleen Sampey