The axe has fallen.
Adobo Magazine reports that negotiations between advertising conglomerate WPP and the Philippines’ Campaigns & Grey have ended with Campaigns & Grey’s chairman, Yoly Ong, saying no to the WPP offer of a buyout.
The local agency has been in talks with Grey Advertising’s parent firm, WPP, since 2007. However, after a series of protracted negotiations with the global advertising giant, Ong realized that a deal was not possible especially if there were incompatibilities. During the talks, Ong lost her agency’s president, Gie Gatchalian, who had irreconcilable differences with WPP since his days with another WPP firm, JWT Manila.
In a statement sent to Adobo Magazine, Ong said “There were too many philosophical differences. If the transaction had been completed, it would have been just about money. As Henry Ford said, a business that only has money is a poor business.”
Campaigns was established by Ong, Marlyn Villapando and Gil Corcuerra in 1986 and ten years later entered a partnership with Grey Advertising.
