In the advertising business, as in real estate, there is a well-established tradition of looking around a bit before signing the papers.
Roth Ryan Hayes and The Palma Group announced this week that they have entered into a strategic relationship — the industry's preferred euphemism for dating before engagement — with an eye toward a full merger at some unspecified point in the future, should the arrangement prove agreeable to both parties.
The structure, which stops short of a formal combination, is designed to allow each agency to open doors for the other, according to people involved in the discussions. (Which doors, exactly, and whether those doors were previously locked, remained unclear.)
Such arrangements have become increasingly common on Madison Avenue, where agencies seeking to expand their capabilities or client rosters often prefer to test compatibility before committing to the permanence — and complexity — of a full corporate marriage. The approach allows both sides to assess cultural fit, shared clients and the inevitable question of whose name goes first on the letterhead.
For Roth Ryan Hayes and The Palma Group, the strategic relationship represents a kind of provisional optimism: close enough to collaborate, far enough apart to walk away cleanly if things do not work out as planned.
Whether the relationship deepens into something more lasting will depend, as these things always do, on factors that are easier to identify in retrospect than in advance.
In the meantime, both agencies will presumably continue to open doors for each other, and perhaps occasionally hold them.
Original story published in adage.com: "Vice-owned Virtue appoints Shannon Washington president - Ad Age"