GLOBAL BRIEF: Can Carat take on the world?

It may take more than the Alberto Culver win to woo sceptics. By

Richard Cook.

When Carat was at its most debt-ridden in the early 90s, it set its

sights on the US. But its subsequent invasion was on an extremely modest

scale. All it did was set up its corporate communications chief, Roger

Parry, in a serviced office in Manhattan. He visited some of Carat’s

European clients, got to know a few others and generally

glad-handed.

Things have moved on since then.

Earlier this month Carat won its first piece of transatlantic business,

when its European client, Alberto Culver, appointed Carat North America

to its dollars 50 million media account. And, for what it’s worth, Carat

is now one of the three largest media independents in the US.

It is impossible to underestimate the uphill task Carat faces. Carat’s

US billings are roughly a third of those of the market leader, Western

International Media. But that’s not the problem. Since Western bills

just dollars 2 billion, there’s plenty to go around. The problem lies in

the position of the media independent in US advertising.

The blue-chip clients, such as Kellogg, General Motors - even, to take a

Carat Europe client - American Express, all use full-service agencies

These agencies set up bespoke media teams just to handle the accounts.

Chrysler, for example, buys its media through a company called Pentacom.

It spends about one-and-a-half times as much as Carat’s total North

American billings. But Pentacom is not a media independent - it is a

company set up by BBDO to service the media on that account. Media

independents are left fighting it out among the regional gas station and

bowling alley clients.

Carat has made its American advance by buying the East Coast

independent, MBS, and the West Coast company, ICG. To these it has added

the technology and planning company, MMA. Now it would dearly love to

persuade more of its multinational clients - the likes of American

Express for example - that it can handle their work globally. It might

succeed: certainly the Alberto Culver win is a considerable coup. But

the odds are stacked against it.

Sponsored by the International Herald Tribune - the World’s Daily

Newspaper.

This article was first published on Campaign