Just a few months after Montreal-based ad agency Bos agreed to swap advertising services for a small piece of equity in fledgling Recruitsoft.com (see ‘Agencies taking stake in dot-coms,’ Strategy, Nov. 22, ’99), advertising and media buying behemoth Omnicom Group has picked up a 20% stake in the Web-based employee recruiting firm.
In announcing the deal last week, New York-based Omnicom said the main benefit of its investment in San Francisco, Calif.-based Recruitsoft.com will accrue to its recruitment advertising firm, Bernard Hodes Group, which is already working with Recruitsoft to develop an integrated Web-based hiring system.
While on the surface it might seem odd for Omnicom to be buying into employment-related ventures, the company’s executive vice-president and chief financial officer Randall Weisenburger said in a telephone interview that it’s all part of a broad-based approach to marketing.
‘Given what’s going on in the digital world, you really need to think much broader than what might be viewed as traditional advertising or marketing,’ he said. ‘Recruitsoft is a technological platform that assists companies in managing their whole HR process, and that goes everywhere from constructing and placing ads to managing the resumés that come in.’
While Bos’ stake in Recruitsoft is nowhere near that of Omnicom, Bos vice-president Claude Carrier says that never in his career has one of his clients been owned in part by another ad agency interest. He adds that while the situation hasn’t spurred any talks between the two stakeholders, ‘you never know.’
In Canada, Omnicom’s holdings include BBDO Canada, Palmer Jarvis DDB, TBWA Chiat/Day and Optimum Media Direction Canada. Harrison, Young, Pesonen & Newell has a seat on the Omnicom board, but operates autonomously.
