????一開始，合并只是笑談而已 。

????陽獅集團（Publicis）首席執(zhí)行官莫里斯?萊維和宏盟集團（Omnicom）首席執(zhí)行官約翰?沃倫均是世界上最大廣告控股公司的資深高管，也是多年的相識。然而，這是莫里斯第一次到訪萊維的巴黎辦公室。當時正值1月，兩位廣告業(yè)巨子在俯瞰巴黎凱旋門的陽獅公司屋頂露臺聊了起來。沃倫說：“它是無價之寶。”

????“并沒有那么多”，萊維回答。“你可以擁有它。”

????“那只是一個玩笑罷了”，萊維在接受財《富雜》志訪問時回顧說。“我的頭腦中一片空白。”

????“我們都笑了”，沃倫說。“但我們卻都記住了這個動議。”

????接下來的6個月時間里——從2月4日在巴黎的會面開始，然后是去年3月在紐約的會面——兩位高管幾乎每隔一周都會相互拜訪，私下秘密地在巴黎或紐約的酒店見面。據(jù)沃倫說，上個月戛納國際廣告節(jié)（Cannes Lions international advertising festival）期間，雙方在法國里維埃拉卡爾頓酒店《the Carlton Hotel》于“一次秘密的會面中”策劃了廣告行業(yè)史上最大的合并交易。為了保持會面的隱蔽性，萊維上酒店6樓沃倫的套房時并沒有坐電梯，而是爬樓梯。沃倫開玩笑說：“他總是鍛煉。”

????因此，當這兩位高管在周日宣布成立陽獅宏盟的交易時，他們自然而然地將地點選在了陽獅總部屋頂?shù)穆杜_。這項合并涉及陽獅和宏盟，前者旗下?lián)碛蠸aatchi & Saatchi、Leo Burnett和互聯(lián)網(wǎng)營銷機構(gòu)Digitas，而后者則擁有廣告巨頭天聯(lián)廣告（BBDO）、DDB和騰邁廣告（TBWA）。聯(lián)姻的潛在利益是巨大的，包括：更廣泛的全球影響力、在與播放客戶廣告的媒體公司打交道時更大的話語權(quán)，在與谷歌(Google)和Facebook交涉時擁有更大的影響力，而這兩家公司是既是廣告公司的客戶也是競爭對手。雖然這一樁所謂的“強強聯(lián)姻”存在諸多好處，但有一點是必然的：這將是一場非常復(fù)雜的婚姻。

????首先，對兩家公司的命脈——客戶——來說，合并是復(fù)雜的。這項提議的交易存在很多客戶沖突，其中包括：百事(PepsiCo) 幾十年來一直是宏盟的旗艦客戶之一，而可口可樂是(Coke)陽獅的客戶。這兩家軟飲行業(yè)巨頭不可能選用同一家廣告代理商，尤其是一個家業(yè)如此之大的公司。陽獅宏盟還需解決的其他沖突包括：蘋果(Apple)和三星(Samsung)，威瑞森 (Verizon) and 美國電話電報公司（AT&T）以及十分賺錢的汽車行業(yè)的多個品牌。

????此外，與雙方都有合作的國際大型公司，例如寶潔(Procter & Gamble)和麥當勞(McDonald's)，將面臨與超大型廣告公司合作的潛在不利因素。寶潔前首席市場營銷官吉姆?斯騰格爾指出，控股公司內(nèi)部各大代理商之間的競爭會變得非常激烈，部分原因在于控股公司沒有針對合作的獎勵機制。現(xiàn)任自營公司顧問的斯騰格爾說：“我經(jīng)常發(fā)現(xiàn)，不同控股公司的代理商合作得更好。公司會承諾，整合不同公司的團隊可以更好地為客戶服務(wù)，但真正實現(xiàn)這一目標的是少之又少。然而，一旦實現(xiàn)，效果將是驚人的。”成功的合作案例包括陽獅為寶潔佳潔士和歐樂-B品牌所做的廣告，以及WPP Group的Team Ford廣告。

????It started as a joke.

????Publicis (PUBGY) CEO Maurice Levy and Omnicom (OMC) chief John Wren, veteran leaders of two of the world's largest ad holding companies, had known each other for years, but this was the first time that Wren visited Levy at his Paris office. It was January, and the two titans of the ad business were chatting on Publicis's rooftop terrace, overlooking the Arc de Triomphe, when Wren said: "This is priceless."

????"Not so much," Levy replied. "It can be yours."

????"It was just a joke," Levy recalled in an interview with Fortune. "I had nothing in mind."

????"We laughed a little," Wren says, "but it was not forgotten."

????Over the next six months -- beginning with a February 4 meeting in Paris, followed by a meeting in New York last March -- the CEOs visited one another nearly every other weekend, meeting privately and secretly in hotels in both cities. Last month, during "a secret rendezvous," as Wren calls it, at the Carlton Hotel amidst the Cannes Lions international advertising festival on the French Riviera, he and Levy carved out the terms of the biggest merger in ad history. To keep the deal under the radar, Levy skipped the elevator and took the stairs to get to Wren's 6th floor hotel suite. "He got his exercise," jokes Wren.

????So, it was fitting that these two bosses were back on the roof of Publicis's Paris headquarters on Sunday when they announced their deal to form Publicis Omnicom. The merger proposes to unite Publicis, which owns Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Burnett as well as Internet-marketing agency Digitas, with Omnicom, which houses ad giants BBDO, DDB, and TBWA. The potential benefits of the combination are massive: an enlarged global footprint, greater leverage with media companies that place ads for their clients, more clout in dealing with Google (GOOG) and Facebook (FB), which are both customers and competitors of the ad companies. With the potential benefits, though, comes one sure thing about this so-called "marriage of equals": It is going to be a very complicated marriage.

????The merger is complicated, first of all, for clients, the lifeblood of the two partners. Among the client conflicts in the proposed deal: PepsiCo (PEP) has been one of Omnicom's flagship clients for decades; Publicis serves Coke (KO). No way will the beverage giants allow their brands to live under one roof -- particularly this roof of never-seen-before proportions. Other conflicts for Publicis Omnicom to sort out: Apple (AAPL) and Samsung (SSNLF), Verizon (VZN) and AT&T (T), and several brands in the lucrative auto category.

????Beyond that, global clients such as Procter & Gamble (PG) and McDonald's (MCD) that work with both Omnicom and Publicis will face the potential downside of doing business with an even bigger conglomerate. Former P&G CMO Jim Stengel points out that agencies within holding companies tend to be very competitive with each other, partly because reward systems aren't set up for collaboration. "I often found that agencies from different holding companies collaborated better," says Stengel, now a consultant with his own firm. "The promise of putting together integrated teams from holding companies to better serve clients is way more the exception than the rule. But when it works, it's magical." Examples of successful collaborations include Publicis's work for P&G's Crest and Oral B brands and WPP Group's (WPPGY) Team Ford (F).