The holding company founded by Mark Penn has never been shy about presenting itself as the alternative to the larger, more established advertising conglomerates. Now it is making that case again, this time by consolidating its scattered media operations into a single global entity called, with characteristic directness, Stagwell Media.
The new agency is built largely on the foundation of Assembly, the media shop that Stagwell has been operating across North America, Europe, the Middle East, India and the Asia-Pacific region. Liz Rutgersson, who had been Assembly's global chief executive, will run Stagwell Media, which the company says now operates in more than 50 markets. The roster includes Lenovo, Mastercard and Procter & Gamble.
Central to the pitch is something called Machine OS, an artificial intelligence platform that Stagwell introduced earlier this year and describes as connecting a client's various marketing tools, data sources and workflows. (One imagines the presentation decks are already being updated.)
"Clients want an alternative between the larger, less nimble agencies and the newer, more singular focused agencies," Ms. Rutgersson said, describing what she called a "perfect white space" for her new operation.
Slavi Samardzija, the global chair of media and commerce at Stagwell, acknowledged that every agency now claims to be fast and flexible, but argued that Stagwell Media's technology was built "by experts and for experts" rather than being bolted onto older systems as an afterthought.
The consolidation also incorporates ADK Global, which gives Stagwell a stronger foothold in Japan — a market that the larger holding companies have long treated as essential but difficult.
Whether clients see a meaningful distinction between this offering and the alternatives remains, as it always does in media, a matter of the next pitch.
Original story published in campaignlive.com: "Stagwell launches global media agency, Stagwell Media | Campaign US"