Draft will merge with sister shop FCB as a global marketing agency with one management team and a single P&L.
Draft founder Howard Draft takes charge of the merged agency immediately; FCB’s Worldwide President-CEO Steve Blamer will resign after a transition. FCB veteran Jonathan Harries becomes worldwide chief creative officer for the combined agency; an “integration committee” will spend the next 90 days developing a new structure and management for the new agency.
Both Howard Draft and Blamer proposed the merger to parent Interpublic Group of Cos., said IPG CEO Michael Roth. “The resulting organization will be highly responsive to the new realities that are transforming the consumer and media landscape,” Roth said in a statement.
“Unlike other models, in which one discipline dominates, our approach has the revolutionary potential of being grounded in creativity, fueled by insights into consumer behavior,” said Draft in a statement. “This strategy—and the joint contributions of Draft and FCB to developing it—will be the cornerstone of our new company.”
IPG anticipates some fallout resulting from client conflicts once the merger goes through. Draft’s clients include Brown-Forman, Masterfoods, Kellogg, ConAgra, CVS, Johnson & Johnson and Kaiser Permanente. FCB’s clients include Kraft, Bristol-Meyers, GlaxoSmithKline, Taco Bell, Motorola and S.C. Johnson.
Other IPG shops, including Marketing Drive Worldwide and Zipatoni, will continue to work separately.
Draft has been growing while FCB revenues fall—a common scenario between promotion and ad siblings as marketers shift spending away from traditional media to below-the-line disciplines.
Draft’s net revenues rose about 6% to an estimated $387.4 million for 2005. (Draft ranked No. 17 in the 2006 PROMO 100, based in part on its size and its growth.) FCB’s revenues fell a reported 11% to $200.8 million for 2005, per Advertising Age.
IPG’s 2005 revenues fell 1.8% to $6.3 billion worldwide; U.S. revenue fell 1.4%.
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