阳狮-宏盟合并：一场始于玩笑的超级联姻

    一开始，合并只是笑谈而已 。

    阳狮集团（Publicis）首席执行官莫里斯•莱维和宏盟集团（Omnicom）首席执行官约翰•沃伦均是世界上最大广告控股公司的资深高管，也是多年的相识。然而，这是莫里斯第一次到访莱维的巴黎办公室。当时正值1月，两位广告业巨子在俯瞰巴黎凯旋门的阳狮公司屋顶露台聊了起来。沃伦说：“它是无价之宝。”

    “并没有那么多”，莱维回答。“你可以拥有它。”

    “那只是一个玩笑罢了”，莱维在接受财《富杂》志访问时回顾说。“我的头脑中一片空白。”

    “我们都笑了”，沃伦说。“但我们却都记住了这个动议。”

    接下来的6个月时间里——从2月4日在巴黎的会面开始，然后是去年3月在纽约的会面——两位高管几乎每隔一周都会相互拜访，私下秘密地在巴黎或纽约的酒店见面。据沃伦说，上个月戛纳国际广告节（Cannes Lions international advertising festival）期间，双方在法国里维埃拉卡尔顿酒店《the Carlton Hotel》于“一次秘密的会面中”策划了广告行业史上最大的合并交易。为了保持会面的隐蔽性，莱维上酒店6楼沃伦的套房时并没有坐电梯，而是爬楼梯。沃伦开玩笑说：“他总是锻炼。”

    因此，当这两位高管在周日宣布成立阳狮宏盟的交易时，他们自然而然地将地点选在了阳狮总部屋顶的露台。这项合并涉及阳狮和宏盟，前者旗下拥有Saatchi & Saatchi、Leo Burnett和互联网营销机构Digitas，而后者则拥有广告巨头天联广告（BBDO）、DDB和腾迈广告（TBWA）。联姻的潜在利益是巨大的，包括：更广泛的全球影响力、在与播放客户广告的媒体公司打交道时更大的话语权，在与谷歌(Google)和Facebook交涉时拥有更大的影响力，而这两家公司是既是广告公司的客户也是竞争对手。虽然这一桩所谓的“强强联姻”存在诸多好处，但有一点是必然的：这将是一场非常复杂的婚姻。

    首先，对两家公司的命脉——客户——来说，合并是复杂的。这项提议的交易存在很多客户冲突，其中包括：百事(PepsiCo) 几十年来一直是宏盟的旗舰客户之一，而可口可乐是(Coke)阳狮的客户。这两家软饮行业巨头不可能选用同一家广告代理商，尤其是一个家业如此之大的公司。阳狮宏盟还需解决的其他冲突包括：苹果(Apple)和三星(Samsung)，威瑞森 (Verizon) and 美国电话电报公司（AT&T）以及十分赚钱的汽车行业的多个品牌。

    此外，与双方都有合作的国际大型公司，例如宝洁(Procter & Gamble)和麦当劳(McDonald's)，将面临与超大型广告公司合作的潜在不利因素。宝洁前首席市场营销官吉姆•斯腾格尔指出，控股公司内部各大代理商之间的竞争会变得非常激烈，部分原因在于控股公司没有针对合作的奖励机制。现任自营公司顾问的斯腾格尔说：“我经常发现，不同控股公司的代理商合作得更好。公司会承诺，整合不同公司的团队可以更好地为客户服务，但真正实现这一目标的是少之又少。然而，一旦实现，效果将是惊人的。”成功的合作案例包括阳狮为宝洁佳洁士和欧乐-B品牌所做的广告，以及WPP Group的Team Ford广告。

    It started as a joke.

    Publicis (PUBGY) CEO Maurice Levy and Omnicom (OMC) chief John Wren, veteran leaders of two of the world's largest ad holding companies, had known each other for years, but this was the first time that Wren visited Levy at his Paris office. It was January, and the two titans of the ad business were chatting on Publicis's rooftop terrace, overlooking the Arc de Triomphe, when Wren said: "This is priceless."

    "Not so much," Levy replied. "It can be yours."

    "It was just a joke," Levy recalled in an interview with Fortune. "I had nothing in mind."

    "We laughed a little," Wren says, "but it was not forgotten."

    Over the next six months -- beginning with a February 4 meeting in Paris, followed by a meeting in New York last March -- the CEOs visited one another nearly every other weekend, meeting privately and secretly in hotels in both cities. Last month, during "a secret rendezvous," as Wren calls it, at the Carlton Hotel amidst the Cannes Lions international advertising festival on the French Riviera, he and Levy carved out the terms of the biggest merger in ad history. To keep the deal under the radar, Levy skipped the elevator and took the stairs to get to Wren's 6th floor hotel suite. "He got his exercise," jokes Wren.

    So, it was fitting that these two bosses were back on the roof of Publicis's Paris headquarters on Sunday when they announced their deal to form Publicis Omnicom. The merger proposes to unite Publicis, which owns Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Burnett as well as Internet-marketing agency Digitas, with Omnicom, which houses ad giants BBDO, DDB, and TBWA. The potential benefits of the combination are massive: an enlarged global footprint, greater leverage with media companies that place ads for their clients, more clout in dealing with Google (GOOG) and Facebook (FB), which are both customers and competitors of the ad companies. With the potential benefits, though, comes one sure thing about this so-called "marriage of equals": It is going to be a very complicated marriage.

    The merger is complicated, first of all, for clients, the lifeblood of the two partners. Among the client conflicts in the proposed deal: PepsiCo (PEP) has been one of Omnicom's flagship clients for decades; Publicis serves Coke (KO). No way will the beverage giants allow their brands to live under one roof -- particularly this roof of never-seen-before proportions. Other conflicts for Publicis Omnicom to sort out: Apple (AAPL) and Samsung (SSNLF), Verizon (VZN) and AT&T (T), and several brands in the lucrative auto category.

    Beyond that, global clients such as Procter & Gamble (PG) and McDonald's (MCD) that work with both Omnicom and Publicis will face the potential downside of doing business with an even bigger conglomerate. Former P&G CMO Jim Stengel points out that agencies within holding companies tend to be very competitive with each other, partly because reward systems aren't set up for collaboration. "I often found that agencies from different holding companies collaborated better," says Stengel, now a consultant with his own firm. "The promise of putting together integrated teams from holding companies to better serve clients is way more the exception than the rule. But when it works, it's magical." Examples of successful collaborations include Publicis's work for P&G's Crest and Oral B brands and WPP Group's (WPPGY) Team Ford (F).