The move comes as consultants such as Accenture are pouring money into the advertising space in a race to challenge traditional players such as WPP. Accenture, which competes with the Big Four in the consulting market, has already made headway by offering clients help buying advertising space. It is now moving in on the creative side of the business, aiming to take more share of big brand marketing budgets. Earlier this month it sealed its acquisition of creative agency Droga5, a deal that came as a shock to many in the traditional advertising industry. “Adland’s reaction to Droga5 should be more like a wake-up call for agencies still mired in old thinking,” Erik Herskind, the co-founder of agency GoDo Discovery, wrote in Campaign magazine last week. The accounting industry is facing a shake-up after the Competition and Markets Authority found a “number of deep-seated problems”. It called for the Big Four, which audit 97pc of all FTSE 350 companies, to split their auditing and consulting operations, and to work with smaller rivals on every audit.
EY and Deloitte are believed to be in talks about making acquisitions in the advertising sector after the UK’s competition watchdog called for an end to the dominance of the Big Four accountants. The Competition Commission said it was concerned that “some firms have become dominant players at a time when there is growing demand from advertisers for more effective ways to measure their performance”. Deloitte and Accenture, which competes for consultancy work with the Big Four, have already made moves into the sector; however, KPMG and PwC are believed not to be interested.