Meta's Instagram FTC Case, Publicis and Omnicom Results, Greg McLelland (M&W's GM of Canada and CRO Advisory Lead), Netflix's 1Q25+ Marketer CEO and CFO Commentary
Madison and Wall: Saturday Summary for April 19, 2025
Will you be in Cannes for the Lions? Are you returning via Paris? If so, on Sunday June 22 (the Sunday following the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity) we will be organizing another “chocolate marathon,” a nearly 26-mile path around Paris, France over the course of the day. To see a past route and get a sense of what it looks like, visit www.chocolatemarathon.com. If you would like to join in for some or all of the day please reach out and let us know.
On this week’s M&W Podcast our Advertising 101 series continues with a focus on digital advertising With Martin Galvin, Co-Founder of Calm Media Investments (a provider of forward media investment programs). Prior to that he ran the Agency commercial program at Pinterest, having previously led Digital investment for GroupM in the UK.
This follows the past eight weeks where we explored the role of agencies (Ep. 23 with Macquarie Securities' Tim Nollen), the function of global account leads (Ep. 24 with Heartmore's Carl Hartman), media agencies (Ep. 25 with Boston University professor Janna Greenberg), media planning (Ep. 26 with Scott Wensman), media research (Ep. 27 with Stacey Schulman), national TV and CTV buying (Ep. 28 with Todd Gordon), local TV (Ep. 29 with Janice Finkel-Greene) and outdoor advertising (Ep. 29 with Keither "Kappy" Kaplan). Our first six parts focused on marketers and how they allocate resources (you can listen to these interviews on episodes 17-22 of The M&W podcast).
Separately, Olivia Morley and I were fortunate enough to have Jon Cook, Global CEO of WPP's VML as our guest this week on the Agency Business podcast. VML is one of the biggest units inside of WPP and critical to the overall company. Beyond their investments in a wide range of new marketing services, they are also the successor entity to some of Madison Avenue's most storied agency brands (including Y&R and JWT), so his take on the business of agencies is well worth the listen.
New Additions!
Madison and Wall is thrilled to announced the appointment of Greg McLelland as GM Canada and CRO Advisory Practice Lead. Mr. McLelland has more than three decades of experience in senior leadership roles focused on technology, digital and video-related advertising. He most recently spent 8 years at Corus, where he was Chief Revenue Officer overseeing more than $1.5 billion in advertising and affiliate revenue. Greg is a true industry leader and will be an impactful addition to M&W. As Dave Morgan, pioneering CEO and founder of Simulmedia said, "Greg McLelland is one of the smartest executives in the media world, anywhere. Greg uniquely understands the intersection between technology and marketing, and has been uniquely able to translate vision into practical, marketing-defining products and services." Read more about him here!
Weekly Work
Meta’s Instagram FTC Case: Potential Impact on Ad Inventory Of A Divestiture
Publicis Still On Track For 4-5% Organic Revenue Growth in 2025, Likely Share Gains, Too
Omnicom Softens Guidance on Mixed Results For 1Q25
Netflix 1Q25 Results: Ongoing Growth, Upside Opportunity In Softer Economy
More Context
This week’s notes covered a wide range of topics. In our analysis of the Meta case, we point out that it’s plausible a break-up of the company would lead to a more powerful combination of two separate entities, just as would probably be true if Google (which lost the trial related to its ad tech monopoly case this week) was forced to sell parts of its business. In both cases, .5 + .5 = much more than 1.
Meanwhile, commentary from marketers and agencies affirmed the softening market for advertising that we have been cautioning about since the results of the 2024 election in November. Notably, Publicis continues to push ahead in the agency world by focusing on taking share and broadening its product offering. Growth can still happen in a downturn with the right focus and ongoing investments, and it will occur for many companies, but certainly won’t for all of them.