No, this is not a fashion label, even though M&As are very fashionable in the industry at the moment. The two letters stand neither for the surnames of company owners, such as D&G for Domenico Dolce & Stefano Gabbana, nor for the first names of the founders, such as the C&A brothers Clemens & August Brenninkmeijer. M&A is rather an English abbreviation and means Mergers & Acquisitions or in short: to eat and be eaten.

Mergers and acquisitions - the literal translation - refers to the merging and selling of companies - especially agencies - up and down the country. If you leaf through old industry newsletters or browse through commercial registers, you will be amazed at how unsustainably the local advertising industry operates. In addition to the many prizes awarded to each other, often only the year of liquidation, merger or takeover by international networks is noted.

 

Advertisers are bad entrepreneurs 

Since the beginning of the golden advertising years, more agencies have disappeared from the scene than clients. In the worst cases, they quietly go bust, in less bad cases they are dissolved in M&A transactions, which are usually driven by greed or panic and rarely demonstrate entrepreneurial vision. However, those involved, especially buyers and sellers, as well as their management consultancies, banks and lawyers, try to claim the opposite with all means of communication. It reads something like this: "... a clear integration strategy is crucial during the pre-, in- and post-deal phases in order to increase shareholder value, especially in times of uncertainty." (Management consultant on the topic of M&A) or like this: "Becoming part of the XY Group represents a major strategic step for Agency Z ... what connects the two agencies is the entrepreneurial spirit, the DNA as an owner-managed organization and the same understanding of it ..." (Press release of an agency takeover).

What sounds credible at the moment, years later seems more like the last sentences of two drowning people encouraging each other and it shows that in many cases the M should rather stand for mesalliance and the A for depreciation.