- Independent agencies Barkley and OKRP have merged to change into one in all the biggest independent agencies within the United States, the businesses announced.
- The merged agency, BarkleyOKRP, may have greater than 650 employees and offices in Chicago, Denver, New York, Pittsburgh and Kansas City, Missouri. Its client roster includes brands equivalent to Metro by T-Mobile, Burger King, Planet Fitness, Motel 6, Premier Protein and AMC.
- The merger is an element of a growing trend of independent agencies either merging or selling to holding corporations to achieve critical skills and scale.
Barkley and OKRP’s merger is yet one more demonstration of the challenges independent agencies face in the present landscape, where global networks could be a one-stop shop for clients, particularly as marketing becomes more digitally focused. In an announcement accompanying the discharge, Barkley CEO Jeff King alluded to the challenges.
“In a world where the alternative is commonly ‘big holding company’ or ‘small independent,’ BarkleyOKRP provides another that marries the most effective of each worlds. We affectionately call it ‘big indie,’” King said. “This merger not only creates a robust recent platform today, however it sets the stage for continued investment to expand and strengthen our capabilities in all areas of the business, including media, data, analytics, performance marketing and technology.”
There has been a flurry of smaller and mid-sized agencies selling to holding corporations. Stagwell, for one, has been on a buying spree, acquiring creatively driven shops including Left Field Labs, Tinsel and Movers + Shakers. While much of the buying spree has been spurred by a necessity for digital expertise, which will be expensive and time-consuming to construct on one’s own, it also indicates that scale is becoming increasingly necessary to survival.
“It doesn’t bode well for small- to medium-sized agencies,” Jay Pattisall, vice chairman and principal analyst at Forrester, said of broader industry trends in a previous interview with Marketing Dive. “It was that once we checked out the problem of the size of holding company agencies versus the culture of small independents, there was a debate as to which one was more helpful because they each include pros and cons.”
King might be CEO of BarkleyOKRP, while Tom O’Keefe, formerly CEO of OKRP, will change into creative chairman of the merged shop. OKRP’s minority-owned subsidiary, Putney, will proceed as an integral a part of the newly formed agency, in response to the announcement. The deal was brokered by Chicago-based private equity firm Keystone Capital.
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