Exclusivity comes at a price to clients. (Opinion).(Brief Article)

A welcome by-product of the ad industry's global consolidation was the seeming certain knowledge that it would force the world's biggest advertisers to relax their hardline and often ludicrous stance on account conflict.

After all, it was argued, how could a multinational carmaker or financial services company find a big enough network to handle its business that wasn't part of a holding company with conflicting business? Pragmatism would prevail and clients would have to relax their rules. That theory, for a time, seemed to work. Not any more.

FCB has just dropped out of the pitch for Hyundai's $160 million account in the US because of pressure from General Motors, a core client of FCB's Interpublic parent. Meanwhile, McCann-Erickson, also part of the Interpublic family, has been forced to resign Reckitt Benckiser's $300 million global account because of a clash with SC Johnson at FCB.

In many respects, clients have themselves to blame for this, as they forced agency networks to consolidate to satisfy their demands for a diverse range of marketing services. Also, as retailers become banks and a multitude of food and drink manufacturers compete for "share of throat", conflict becomes much harder to define.

Clients ...