EssenceMediacom, part of WPP’s media investment arm GroupM, officially launches today, nine months after the merger of the two media agencies was announced.

Prior to the merger, Mediacom was already the world's largest media agency network based on 2021 worldwide revenue, according to the Ad Age Datacenter. The addition of Essence, which was ranked No. 14 on that list, bolsters its status, giving the combined entity an estimated revenue of more than $2.1 billion, according to Ad Age Datacenter. The next two largest media agencies include fellow GroupM agencies Wavemaker and Mindshare. 

EssenceMediacom will now have over 10,000 employees across 120 offices globally and will be led by Global CEO Nick Lawson. Key clients include Adidas, Airbnb, Bayer, The Coca-Cola Co., Dell, EY, Google, Mars, Nationwide, NBCUniversal, PlayStation, Procter & Gamble, Signet, Target and Uber. A spokeswoman for the agency said that no offices have closed, but noted that some might move into different WPP or GroupM campuses.

The merger was initiated so clients wouldn’t have to “choose” between the two media companies, according to Jill Kelly, who was appointed U.S. CEO of EssenceMediacom in November 2022.

One agency consultant who asked not to be identified said it was important to combine Essence, founded in 2005 as a digital agency, with Mediacom, which was launched in 1986 as a more traditional media planning and buying agency at a time when linear TV was on the rise.

“GroupM needs to bring their agencies more closely together in reviews to shed the legacy blockers and fulfill upon the current full-funnel needs of marketers. Essence and MediaCom were the natural fit in this regard,” the consultant said in an email. “Essence brings the digital/performance expertise for clients, which is obviously accentuated by its long-term relationship with Google, and Mediacom provides the global footprint and powered scale of the GroupM network.”

The new entity was tested out with several clients such as Google, NBCUniversal and Mars Wrigley prior to the announcement being made, said Kelly, noting that EssenceMediacom will allow the agency to react to client needs faster, especially during tough economic times. Kelly cited as an example the explosive growth of TikTok.

“The era that we're in right now looks different than it did five years ago, which looks different than it did 15 years ago. It's complex, it's exciting, it's challenging, but this is the type of environment that we're built for,” Kelly said. 

Besides Kelly, the agency’s U.S. leadership team consists of the following employees from each of the previous two agencies: Chief People Officer Carrie Galli; Chief Planning Officer Jason Lim; Chief Client Officer Aruna Natarajan; Chief Revenue Officer Adam Potashnick; Chief Strategy Officer Anush Prabhu; Chief Performance Officer Anthony Rinaldi; Chief Financial Officer Tony Santabarbara; Head of Marketing & Communications Maureen Morrison; Head of Data & Technology Therran Oliphant and Head of Analytics & Insights John Stewart.

Challenges during the nine months of combining the two companies included making sure all employees were on the same internal communications platform as well as “syncing titling structures” across the agency, said Kelly. “Mediacom was on one system and Essence was on another system, and it was just kind of syncing across those systems because I couldn't get a calendar invite that came from one organization versus the other organization,” Kelly said.

Last week, Digiday reported that GroupM laid off more than 100 employees. Kelly said the merger did not play a role in those reductions, and she did not confirm how many employees were laid off. 

“It's hard to say if [EssenceMediacom] merger is strategic or another attempt at consolidation to reduce cost as WPP has done in other areas," said Avi Dan, founder and CEO of Avidan Strategies. "It makes some sense as GroupM does not need four agencies who compete with each other—it’s too complex.”

WPP hasn’t been shy to combine and rebrand some of its agencies. As part of the overall GroupM restructuring Finecast, Xaxis and GroupM Services were joined to form GroupM Nexus. Mindshare also merged with performance marketing shop Neo.

In March, global media network m/SIX, a joint venture between The&Partnership and WPP, rebranded to mSix&Partners. Also last year, the holding company merged design agency Design Bridge with Superunion, a brand and design consultancy, to create Design Bridge and Partners.