NEW YORK – Interpublic Group (IPG) has brought together two of its agencies, London-based Lowe & Partners and Boston-based Mullen, to form its third global advertising agency network.
Mullen’s CEO, Alex Leikikh (pictured) will take the lead as Worldwide CEO of the new Mullen Lowe Group. which will set up its headquarters in New York. The rest of its top execs will be coming from both companies across world markets, with Jose Miguel Sokoloff continuing in his position as chairman of the global creative council.
Meanwhile, Michael Wall, CEO of Lowe and Partners, which has been instrumental in the creation of Mullen Lowe, have decided to leave IPG.
The merger will create what is described to be “a creatively-driven global agency network” that can help Mullen penetrate international markets, in the same way that Lowe can get closer to the US market. IPG’s other two big ad networks are McCann and FCB.
All Mullen’s US offices in Boston, Los Angeles and Winston-Salem will be rebranded to Mullen Lowe. IPG adds that digital agency Lowe Profero agency in New York and Mullen’s media unit Mediahub will both report to Mullen Lowe Group.
All Lowe agencies in key international markets will report to Mullen Lowe Group. Lowe Campbell Ewald will be unbundled, leaving Campbell Ewald, with offices in Detroit, San Antonio, New York, and Los Angeles, to work independently within the Mullen Lowe Group.
In the U.K., Mullen Lowe Group will oversee DLKW Lowe, Lowe Profero and Lowe Open.
As of press time, IPG has not announced a new logo for the newly merged shops and plans if Lowe offices in Asia will also undergo a name change.
This is not the first time Lowe was merged with a sister agencies. Some mergers were meant to beef up its global reach like the 1999 deal with Ammirati Puris Lintas to for Lowe Lintas + Partners to enter India. Others were aimed directly at the US market, like the most recent merger in 2013 that created Lowe Campbell Ewald.
IPG is the world’s fourth-largest advertising holding firm, with $7.5 billion in global revenues last year. On the top is WPP ($19 billion) followed by Omnicom Group ($15.3 billion) and Publicis Groupe ($9.6 billion).
