e.wire is WPP's monthly public bulletin of news and initiatives across the Group's worldwide network. The following are edited highlights; view the full version here.

HEADLINERS

Stop Press

Group takes overall honours in Cannes for second year in a row, and is named Most Effective Advertising Holding Company in the 2012 Effie Effectiveness Index

WPP took the overall prize for creative performance at the prestigious Cannes Lions Festival. In a repeat of 2011´s result, judges at the world´s premier showcase for excellence in communications named WPP Holding Company of the Year. The award is based on the total number of Cannes Lions won by holding companies´ agencies. WPP notched up 1,554.5 points in the competition, followed by Omnicom with 1,375.5 and Publicis with 1,032.

Cannes Lions were won by agencies across the Group, across marketing disciplines and across regions. They included, amongst many others: Black River FC, Blast Radius, CHI & Partners, Grey, JWT, Johannes Leonardo, Kinetic, Landor, MediaCom, MetropolitanRepublic, Mindshare, Ogilvy, Scholz & Friends, The Partners, Vice, VML and Y&R. WPP agencies from 50 countries across every continent received awards. Notable wins included, amongst others, Network of the Year for Ogilvy, a PR Grand Prix for JWT Puerto Rico, an Outdoor Grand Prix for Ogilvy Shanghai and a Mobile Grand Prix for Johannes Leonardo (with Grow).

Separately, the Group was named Most Effective Advertising Holding Company in the 2012 Effie Effectiveness Index.

AKQA, the world´s leading independent and most-awarded digital agency, to join WPP

WPP has agreed to acquire, subject to regulatory approval, the assets of AKQA Holdings, Inc. (AKQA), the world´s leading independent and most-awarded digital agency.

Founded in 2001, AKQA fast established a reputation as the one to watch, the pace setter, with its innovative, entrepreneurial spirit, outstanding creativity and its ideas-led approach. With a unique combination of creativity and technology, AKQA provides integrated digital communications campaigns, spanning social media, mobile, interactive experiences, gaming and content creation. Clients include Delta, Diageo, EDF, GAP, Google, Microsoft Xbox, Nike, Target, Unilever and Virgin Money, among many others.

International recognition for its creative excellence has earned the agency numerous industry awards, including 19 Agency of the Year titles.

GroupM to acquire South Korean media planning and buying agency, Alchemedia

GroupM has agreed to acquire Alchemedia Inc., a media planning & buying agency in South Korea. Founded in 2004 and based in Seoul, Alchemedia is an independent media planning & buying agency. Alchemedia will be merged into GroupM Korea, and the combined company´s client roster will include Audi, GSK, Hicos Fragrances, IBM, LG Electronics, Lock & Lock, Procter & Gamble, Sejung Fashion, Red Bull, Rolex and VW.

Ogilvy & Mather acquires majority stake in Brazilian digital agency, Foster

Ogilvy & Mather has acquired a 70% stake in Foster Informatica, Ltda, a leading digital agency in Brazil. Founded in 1993, Foster is based in São Paulo and employs 50 people. Clients include Monsanto, Bayer, Metro, Danone and Goodyear.

Burson-Marsteller to acquire leading French communications consultancy, i&e SAS

Burson-Marsteller has agreed to acquire communications consultancy, i&e SAS (i&e) in France. Paris-based i&e has 50 years of experience in the French market and specialises in reputation management, brand marketing and change management. The consultancy employs around 110 people and provides public relations services to public institutions and companies, including many of France´s leading brands.

WPP AGM Trading Update

In the first four months of 2012, reported revenues were up 7.0% at £3.228 billion. Revenues in constant currency were up 7.4%, reflecting the slight weakness of the pound sterling against the US dollar more than offset by its strength against the Euro. On a like-for-like basis, excluding the impact of acquisitions and currency fluctuations, revenues were up 4.0% compared with the same period last year.

Ogilvy & Mather acquires stake in Istropolitana, a full service advertising agency group in the Slovak Republic

Ogilvy & Mather has acquired a minority stake in Communication Group, A.S., the holding company for the Istropolitana group of companies, in the Slovak Republic. Founded in 1992 and headquartered in Bratislava, Istropolitana is a full service advertising agency comprising a number of separate businesses. The group employs 95 people and major clients include Heineken, Slovak Telecom and VUB Banka.

New Offers

Digit and The Brand Union create partnership

Digit and The Brand Union are creating a new partnership model and a client offer that unites world-class capabilities in brand strategy and design through technology, interaction, implementation and measurement. The move brings together the global network and established strategic branding credentials of The Brand Union with Digit´s world-class capabilities in interaction design and technology.

Burson-Marsteller forms group to help clients prepare for the 'dot-possibilities´ era

Burson-Marsteller has formed a consulting group dedicated to advising clients on the introduction of the new generic top level domain (gTLD) system. This new system will see the introduction of new domain extensions that can be virtually any word in any language.

SYZYGY launches free social sampling tool, POPSHOP

Digital agency SYZYGY has launched it latest innovation tool, POPSHOP - a free WordPress tool for social sampling. POPSHOP is designed to help businesses, artists, brands and content creators optimise their product launches and content releases by making it easy for them to offer a free product or content sample in return for a social share. POPSHOP creates a temporary ´pop-up´ event page for a website and facebook page where free stuff can be offered for a social share in order to create social media buzz around a new launch or release, and drive viral awareness and trial.

To demo POPSHOP visit: popshop.syzygy.co.uk.

Landor opens in Moscow; Forward opens in China

Landor Associates has opened a new office in Moscow, headed up by Country Director Emma Beckmann.

New Business

JWT Vietnam named digital agency of record for Unilever.

Kinetic wins six out-of-home buying categories for Amway China.

People

Paul Heath steps up to become Chairman at Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific.

Klaus Nadler named CEO of GroupM Switzerland.

Matt MacDonald and Ryan Kutscher named Co-Chief Creative Officers at JWT New York.

Charlotte Chunawala named CEO at Cohn & Wolfe India.

Awards

Ogilvy named Network of the Year at Cannes and Most Effective Agency Network, Globally in 2012 Effie Effectiveness Index.

Group companies from 50 countries across every continent received recognition at Cannes.

New Business Enquiries

Are you looking for an advertising or marketing services partner? WPP can help point you in the right direction - find out how.

Insights

New Ogilvy book looks at everyday ingenuity and creativity in Asia

Written by David Mayo, President, Ogilvy & Mather ASEAN and Kunal Sinha, Regional Cultural Insights Director, Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific and more than two years in the making, Raw: Pervasive Creativity in Asia, looks at everyday ingenuity and creativity in Asia.

A mixture of striking photography and real-life examples demonstrates the diversity, the creative spirit and the can-do attitude that lives on the streets of Asia.

Geppetto debuts new study on digital engagement through the eyes of Millennials

While others may provide the "what" and the "how" behind today´s digital trends, this study by youth marketing experts Geppetto gets to the "why" behind Millennial digital engagement and what it means for brands. It identifies six drivers of the Millennial mindset and highlights digitally-branded experiences that are answering each, and provides new insights to optimize a brand´s digital marketing strategy and maximize its impact with a consumer group that is 70MM+ strong and has in excess of $200 billion of buying power.

Find out more at:
www.geppettogroup.com/news

Millward Brown publishes best practice in digital media deployment

Millward Brown has analysed the evidence from several key studies to create some simple evidenced-based guidelines for marketers who want to make the most effective use of all forms of digital media - from websites to online video, social media and mobile - as part of an integrated campaign.

Dowload the guidelines (pdf, 11.7 Mb).

WPP Reading Room

Find the latest and best published thinking from Group professionals in WPP´s popular Reading Room: groundbreaking articles, research, books, videos, blogs and more.

Some recent features include:

Velocity: How can you win when the only certainty is change? In Velocity, authors Stefan Olander - Vice President of Digital Sport from Nike, and Ajaz Ahmed - founder and Chairman AKQA - use up-to-date examples to illustrate key lessons, together with insights, ideas and inspiration that individuals and businesses should adopt to thrive.
Brought to you by Millward Brown, the BrandZ Top 50 Most Valuable Latin American Brands report focuses on the five leading Latam economies - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico. These nations together represent GDP of about $5 trillion, the equivalent of the world´s fourth largest economy after Japan. For more, read the full report.
In Welcome to the Triple A Era, Cohn & Wolfe´s Jeff Smith assesses why healthcare´s hour of need demands a change in focus for health communications

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