WPP-backed agencies The&Partnership and mSix&Partners merge
WPP-backed The&Partnership has formally merged with its media buying and planning agency, mSix&Partners, to create a new fully-integrated agency with AI at the forefront, Mumbrella can reveal.
Under the new global brand, T&Pm, is described as “one of the world’s leading full service creative and media agencies, connecting talent and tech to drive growth for brands”, T&Pm will bring content and distribution together into a single, holistic end-to-end marketing solution.
The move hopes to combine The&Partnership’s creative talents and integrated, agnostic answers to marketing challenges, with mSix&Partners’ expertise in performance-led solutions for its media clients.
“Looking back, I’m not sure whose idea it was for our industry to separate creative and media agencies, but I’m sure the motives were more profit – than client-driven,” said Johnny Hornby, founder and CEO of The&Partnership.
“If that separation ever made any sense, it certainly doesn’t today.”
The merged agency will have AI at its heart, from the creation of content to its deployment and optimisation. While the siloed nature of the marketing industry limits its adoption, T&Pm promises to “connect talent and tech to fuel brand growth”, by combining its capabilities to offer genuine solutions to clients.
“Modern brands need to connect the dots, brilliant creative thinking can’t be divorced from the smart media systems that bring it to life, all of which can now be personalised at scale by breakthroughs in AI,” Hornby continued.
“AI’s power really is at a pivot point for our industry, but will only be harnessed by a much more holistic approach. Combining our unique model with WPP’s £250m [AU$485m] annual AI investment, means T&Pm will be well placed to help our clients seize this opportunity.”
David Dahan, T&Pm’s co-president and MD, APAC, told Mumbrella: “We will be the only independent agency in Australia to be able to provide creative + media + tech through AI as one seamless offering, powered by the might of Group M and WPP’s AI capabilities.
“This move will allow us to offer to a wide range of clients a level of integration that is increasingly needed. T&Pm is the answer to more complex customer journeys and communication landscapes from TV to digital to commerce. Clients want simpler solutions that can support their complex needs.
“Whether they are looking for creative only or media only, what we are doing will make both better. T&Pm will simplify their lives and provide a new level of speed, return and performance. We have already proven the model for Mars and EA.
“We started in Australia five years ago; we now have a strong leadership in place. We are excited by this new evolution.”
T&Pm will apply its independent partner-led mindset to WPP’s AI platforms, and plans to become the holding company’s AI ‘speedboat’ to accelerate growth across its entire roster of clients.
The combined company will be operational from next Monday, March 25.
Late last year, WPP announced the merger of its creative agencies VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson, bringing the VML name out of retirement. The change took effect on January 1.
Shortly after, it revealed plans to merge its communication agencies Hill & Knowlton and BCW, to form Burson. The name also returns to the WPP stable after retiring in early 2018 when it was merged with Cohn & Wolfe. The merger will take effect on July 1.
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Lauren McNamara is a journalist at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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WPP must be better than any other business I t he world at killing brands and making them merge to create meaningless brand names The issue with doing this and not taking a lead name is the new entity means nothing Very sad that people at the top don’t seem to know what they are doing
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