What are the current trends in the Media & Creative sector?

Ciaran Donaghy:

“Put simply, the main current trend is digitalisation. There is a growing interest in the industry due to their transformative nature and this is reflected in the M&A space with many larger, more traditional agencies targeting digital agencies.

There has also been a shift with many agencies looking to bring all social media in-house, which, in turn, is meaning that agencies need to offer a unique and more specialised skill-sets to their clients. The need to have a genuine USP and be more collaborative partners to their clients has never been more important. There has also been a shift in the amount of retained work with agencies and this has become much more project focused.”

Oliver Dunne:

“The big advertising agencies are going through a period of consolidation, which means they’re trying to cut costs and improve efficiencies and as a result, there is a lot of movement and churn within those agencies. This gives greater opportunities to smaller agencies. There are only a few agencies within the larger groups who are ‘cleaning up’, the rest is passing on to SME’s. With WPP’s recent change of CEO, there is much debate about whether WPP’s model is still sustainable. Sorrell was great at M&A, but didn’t create an agency feel, so whilst they’re a monster of a company, as an agency they don’t perform that well. This is an example of their little focus on efficiencies and over-reliance on M&A.”

Til Schultheiss:

“Traditional publishing companies are being challenged by disruptive technologies to their sector and the focus has shifted to the development of apps, VR and AR, which are prevailing. Consequently, jobs are shifting away from traditional publishing and into digital roles, which require more technical experience, and this is reflected by WPP’s recent drop in share prices. How companies manage this digital transformation holds the key to their future success or failure.”

To see the latest finance positions within the media & creative sector, click here.