Five Reasons Why...WPP Has Created EssenceMediacom

Yesterday marked one of the biggest changes to the UK media agency market in years: the mighty Mediacom partnered with sister agency Essence to create a new global media powerhouse EssenceMediacom.

Born out of two pioneering agencies, EssenceMediacom fuses Essence’s performance, data, analytics and creative technology DNA with MediaCom’s scaled multichannel audience planning and strategic media expertise.

Led by Global CEO Nick Lawson, EssenceMediacom brings together 10,000 people across 120 offices in 96 markets and has billings of more than US$21 billion (Source: COMvergence, 2021). Its global client roster includes adidas, Coca-Cola (TCCC), Dell, Google, Hasbro, Mars, NBC Universal, P&G, Richemont, Shell, Sony, and Uber.

In the UK the agency is comprised of two entities: EssenceMediacom and EssenceMediacomX. EssenceMediacom will be led by Kate Rowlinson, while EssenceMediacomX is spearheaded by Ryan Storrar. The two entities enable differentiation in order to bring the absolute best capabilities in media to as many UK brands as possible, offering greater access to tools, resources, and insights, with separate operational client teams.

Around the UK, EssenceMediacom boasts the largest regional network in the country, comprising of EssenceMediacom North (Manchester, Leeds, and Birmingham) led by COO, Paul Cooper, EssenceMediacom Code (its northern digital transformation, product and UX hub) and EssenceMediacom Scotland.

EssenceMediacom and EssenceMediacomX are part of GroupM, WPP’s media investment group, giving them access to the richest data, most robust benchmarks and most advanced capabilities in the market fueled by the cross-channel performance division GroupM Nexus and Choreograph, GroupM’s industry-leading data and technology services provider.

Five Reasons Why WPP has created EssenceMediacom

• Marketers are increasingly looking for solutions that bridge performance and brand marketing, particularly in the current economic climate. Bringing Mediacom and Essence together creates a more powerful entity to deliver across all of the challenges and opportunities brands face around the world.

• Mediacom, as the big global multi-channel media player, had the scale, Essence was the digital performance expert. Media scale remains as important as ever but media is more complex than ever, requiring constant investment and innovation by media agencies. This pace of media change means expertise in performance media, multi-channel media and creative media strategy can no longer be siloed; flexibility at scale comes from an holistic approach underpinned by specialist tools. Both EssenceMediacom and EssenceMediacomX combine Essence’s performance, data, analytics, and creative technology DNA with MediaCom’s scaled multichannel audience planning and strategic media expertise.

• The new business will be able to leverage the efficiencies of shared tools and resources at scale. Everything will be underpinned by EMOS – EssenceMediacom’s Operating System. This modular suite of tools and data will connect the best of Essence, MediaCom and GroupM’s technology and make it available to EssenceMediacom and EssenceMediacomX teams and clients across the globe.

• Disrupting the old models across media, creative, innovation and analytics, EssenceMediacom has been built to find new opportunities for brands and to deliver truly integrated media solutions. The new business will enable insight-driven, forward-thinking creativity in media, but also fundamentally, improved collaboration with media partners to build bigger brand ideas to drive their transformation and growth.

• In a fiercely competitive media agency market, EssenceMediacom gives WPP a potent new card to play in media pitches and has already played well with city analysts looking for business growth.

EssenceMediacom UK launches with a proven record of strong growth, having recently added Flutter Entertainment and Sony PlayStation global to its extensive client roster. Combined, the EssenceMediacom UK business has over £2billion total billings. In 2022, EssenceMediacom added 13 new accounts, totalling £102m of new billings; £90m of which was in digital, £510m in successful re-pitches and 17 client renewed contracts.

Kate Rowlinson, EssenceMediacom’s UK CEO, says: “The media landscape is constantly evolving, and we need to evolve with it. As such, we are launching a business that helps our talent, our clients, and our partners to create breakthrough thinking and campaigns. Offering the latest in data and innovation with the most forward-thinking creativity in media, our ambition is to be the place where both people and clients grow. Our new structure will allow for investment, experimentation, and agility – and we have already seen clients vouch for their confidence through renewals and wins.”

Ryan Storrar, EssenceMediacomX CEO, comments: “Innovation has always been what drives us at Essence, and I can think of no better way to innovate than by combining our cutting-edge data and insight capabilities with the creativity, talent, and existing digital leadership already in place at MediaCom. This new business is a truly exciting venture for our people, for our clients and for culture – as the best brains in media unite to deliver best-in-class activations for our clients.”

Christian Juhl, Global CEO, GroupM, adds: “The fusion of Essence’s measurement and data-driven DNA with MediaCom’s scale and strategic expertise creates something truly unique in the marketplace. Alongside Mindshare, Wavemaker, and mSix&Partners, the launch of EssenceMediacom ensures we have the solutions and thinking to meet the needs of every brand and marketer seeking to grow their business in the new economy. I’m personally excited to see the way EssenceMediacom’s commitment to creating breakthroughs will change expectations for what’s possible in business, culture, and marketing and produce enormous value for our clients.”