Ad agencies don't get search? Well WPP Group says it gets it in a big way. From Revolution, WPP eyes world domination with search marketing arm tells us briefly that the organization plans to launch a network of 47 offices worldwide to focus on search marketing through a new agency, mSearch.
Bouncing ball time here: mSearch has been made by rebranding the AdvancePositions.com company that WPP acquired in 2000. But wait a minute, didn't I just post out WPP has acquired other firms that eventually were rolled up and rebranded into Outrider in my Will 2005 Bring More SEM Acquisitions post last month?
Why yes I did. So I called Mike Chowney, who is heading up operations of the new mSearch company outside the US. Yep, mSearch will compete with Outrider to some degree, but that's the only other WPP unit he's aware of with a search marketing focus.
Outrider does more than search marketing, of course -- mSearch will be focused entirely on this. But it still feels odd that one media group will have two different units that could compete against each other for business. Or perhaps that's the way WPP wants it :)
Postscript: See also mOne Forms Search Unit Save up to $400! Register now for SES New York 2012, the Leading Search & Social Marketing Event, taking place March 19-23. Google's Digital Marketing Evangelist Avinash Kaushik will keynote. Hurry, pre-agenda rate expires March 2!
