MAM
McCann wins GM account
MUMBAI: McCann Erickson has won the corporate and digital creative business for all of General Motors‘ brands in India.
Talking to Indiantelevision.com, General Motors India vice-president P Balendran said, “McCann will handle the creative and digital duties of all our brands in India. They will have a dedicated team working on our brands and the work has already started.”
Balendran, however, refused to comment on whether the account size amounted to Rs 1.5 billion.
The pitch process that went on for 2-3 months also involved Leo Burnett and Contract Advertising.
For the first time, General Motors India has decided to award the creative duties of all its brands to a single agency. Until now, the company had two agencies on its roster – Leo Burnett and Wieden+Kennedy.
Henceforth, McCann will now work on the creative business of GM‘s existing brands as well as on the forthcoming launches.
McCann had previously worked on Chevrolet nearly half a decade ago and is one of other global agencies that handle the brand.
The relationship between McCann and GM has been a very flirtatious one.
It all began in 2005, when McCann won the creative duties of GM’s car lines including Chevrolet Optra and new car launches — along with Rediffusion Y&R that took over Tavera and Chevrolet corporate business. Enterprise Nexus was the incumbent agency for Chevrolet Optra.
After spending almost three-and-a-half years in the relationship, GM decided to move its properties — until now with McCann to Wieden + Kennedy (W+K) in September 2009.
AD Agencies
Omnicom Q4: Posts big revenue gains amid restructuring
Company trims underperforming units and launches $5B share buyback to reward investors.
MUMBAI: Omnicom has decided that in the world of global advertising, it is better to be a big fish in an even bigger pond. The marketing powerhouse, which recently swallowed its rival IPG, has kicked off 2026 by showing the market that it is not just buying growth – it is engineering it. In a series of bold strategic manoeuvres, the group has doubled its projected cost-savings target to a whopping $1.5 billion over the next three years.
The fourth-quarter results for 2025, released on 18 February 2026, paint a picture of a company in the midst of a massive structural makeover. Reported revenue for the quarter shot up 27.9 per cent to $5,528.8 million, a figure heavily bolstered by the first full month of IPG’s operations under the Omnicom umbrella. For the full year, revenue reached $17,271.9 million, marking a 10.1 per cent increase as the company integrated heavyweights like Acxiom Real iD and Flywheel Commerce Cloud into its next generation Omni platform.
However, bigger does not always mean tidier. The group reported a Gaap net loss of $941.1 million for the final quarter, or $4.02 per diluted share. This was primarily due to a massive $1.1 billion bill for severance and real estate repositioning, alongside a $543.4 million loss on the sale of non-strategic businesses. When these one-off integration headaches are stripped away, the underlying performance looks far more robust, with adjusted net income reaching $607.7 million and earnings per share of $2.59, comfortably ahead of the prior year’s $2.41.
The group is also trimming the fat elsewhere. Management has identified underperforming and non-strategic units representing approximately $2.5 billion in revenue for exit or sale. Meanwhile, smaller majority-owned markets bringing in $700 million are being moved to minority positions. This portfolio pruning is designed to focus the New Omnicom on higher-growth areas like media, creative content, and data-driven consulting.
Investors, it seems, are being kept sweet with a significant return of capital. The board has approved a fresh $5 billion share repurchase program, initiating an immediate $2.5 billion accelerated buyback. This comes on top of $549.6 million paid out in common dividends during the year.
Performance across the sectors was a mixed bag but generally positive in the heavy-hitting divisions. Media and advertising revenue surged 34.4 per cent in the fourth quarter to $3,322.6 million, while public relations grew 12.4 per cent to $500.8 million. On the flip side, branding and retail commerce saw a 7.0 per cent dip. Regionally, the US remains the engine room, with revenue jumping 51.9 per cent to $2,869.1 million in the quarter, while the UK saw a respectable 18.8 per cent rise to $533.2 million.
With a total debt of $9.1 billion following the IPG acquisition, the group is leaning on its cash-generative nature to keep its investment-grade credit rating intact. Free cash flow for the year stood at $2,226.1 million, up from $1,964.7 million in 2024. As the company moves into 2026, the focus is firmly on the Connected Capability model, essentially ensuring that its global army of talent is pulling in the same direction, and more importantly, within a much leaner budget.
