Dive Brief:

• In the wake of industry-wide reviews of large ad accounts, publicly traded advertising holding companies are seeing a drop in stock price over the last three months.
• These market conditions contrast with Standard & Poor’s 500 performance over the time period.
• Other industry news that might be impacting stock prices is the contention that agency kickbacks are rampant.

Dive Insight:

The ripples of the ongoing ad industry reviewageddon are reaching Wall Street. Advertising holding company stocks over the last three months are down including: Omnicom down 7%, Interpublic 11%, WPP 1.8% and Publicis is down 0.5%. These negative trends compare to Standard & Poor’s 500 near 2% increase over the time period beginning in April. Other industry news could also be shaking investor confidence, such as the recent contention from Mediacom’s CEO that ad agencies are regularly taking rebates or kickbacks via arrangement with media sellers.

Reviewageggon – also being called mediapalooza and pitchapalooza – represents $26 billion in ad spending under review between big brands and big agencies. That figure is higher than the last three years of account reviews combined, and includes a number of major brands including Coca-Cola, Proctor & Gamble, Volkswagen and L’Oreal. Marketers are hoping to strike better deals with agencies and on media costs through the process.