MDC Partners (Canada)

MDC Partners (previously Maxxcom) is Canada's biggest marketing group, housing a broad portfolio of diversified services agencies on both sides of the US/Canadian border. Unlike rival marketing services groups, MDC doesn't control any international networks. Instead, operating primarily as a venture capital investor, it has stakes in a collection of separately branded, mainly single office agencies. It has become best known for its shareholdings in two highly admired American shops, Crispin Porter & Bogusky and Kirshenbaum Bond. The main benefit MDC offers its partner agencies is the upfront payout for their shares. Beyond that, businesses are left with operational independence, and that includes the freedom not to work with each other to grow faster or more efficiently.

For now, MDC can warm itself on the glow emanating from Crispin Porter & Bogusky, definitely one of the industry's hottest agencies. But if it is to maintain its growth curve, it needs to define its relevance as a group, and to start proving the case for its anti-network argument by delivering profits as well as turnover. In 2008, rumours circulated that MDC was looking for a buyer, although those reports were denied emphatically by the group. Advertising Age ranked MDC as the #9 ad organisation worldwide in 2008 with revenues of $585m.

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MDC Partners website

Crispin Porter & Bogusky	Zig
Kirshenbaum Bond	Colle & McEvoy
Accent Marketing Services	Accumark
Zyman Group	Mackenzie Marketing
Ambrose Carr Linton Campbell	Allard Johnson
TargetCom	Source Marketing
Veritas Canada	Fletcher Martin
NorthStar	Integrated Healthcare

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