Despite Downturn, Bold Moves and New Techniques

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/business/media/29adco.html?_r=1&ref=media

Among the signs of improvement, or at least a bottoming out, are reports in trade publications like Advertising Age that demand for commercial time on television networks is increasing, even if slightly.

And Maurice Lévy, chief executive at another giant agency company, the Publicis Groupe, predicted on Tuesday that “the advertising market is starting its recovery” and Publicis would begin to see organic revenue growth in the second half of 2010.

In another indication that the worst may be in the rear-view mirror, some well-known executives are taking the risk of opening agencies at a time when many established shops are struggling. One new agency, called Victors and Spoils, is being started by partners who include two former senior managers at Crispin Porter & Bogusky, owned by MDC Partners.

Another is in the form of a New York office for a British agency, Beattie McGuinness Bungay, which is expanding outside London for the first time. The office, staffed with Americans, has its first client, Samsung.