Cheil Worldwide, the advertising affiliate of Samsung Group, has begun streamlining some overseas subsidiaries to improve efficiency in its global operations. Analysts say the company has entered a phase of reorganizing its overseas advertising network, which it had expanded through mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
According to the advertising industry on the 16th, Cheil Worldwide last year liquidated three entities under its overseas subsidiary Iris: the London B2B marketing entity Iris Partners LLP and the U.S. sub-subsidiaries Pepper NA and Founded.
Iris is an advertising company that Cheil Worldwide acquired in 2016. Based in the United Kingdom, it conducts marketing operations across Europe.
Industry officials view Cheil Worldwide's move as part of a broader effort to improve efficiency in its global business. Cheil Worldwide has expanded globally by acquiring advertising and marketing companies in North America, Europe, and Asia. Through this, it pursued a strategy to move beyond an advertising structure centered on Samsung Group affiliates such as Samsung Electronics and secure global advertisers.
Cheil Worldwide acquired the U.S. company Barbarian and China's Penta in 2009, and in 2012 it acquired the U.S. advertising company McKinney. It went on to buy the U.K.'s Iris in 2014, and acquired Romania's Centrade and India's Experience Commerce in 2018. It added China's ColorData in 2020 and India's Social Beat in 2024, expanding its global network.
Cheil Worldwide now operates 55 hubs in 46 countries worldwide, centered on its Seoul headquarters in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Of last year's 4.5469 trillion won in revenue, 3.1313 trillion won, or 68.9%, came from overseas.
Growth in North America was particularly notable. Cheil Worldwide's key North American subsidiaries, McKinney and Barbarian, posted revenue growth of 29.2% and 33.4%, respectively, last year.
North America is also taking a larger share among global advertisers. Last year, four of Cheil Worldwide's top five major overseas advertisers, excluding Samsung affiliates, were North American corporations. They included the credit card company American Express, the restaurant franchise Popeyes, the pharmaceutical company Biogen, and the off-price retailer Ross Stores.
Recently, as Cheil Worldwide's global network has grown, the company has been carrying out restructuring to boost operational efficiency. Since 2023, it has been overhauling its overseas business, and in the same year it wound down Atom42, a U.K. marketing corporation under Iris, and Pepper Technology, its Singapore entity.
Pepper NA and Founded, which were liquidated this time, are U.S.-based advertising and marketing entities. The two companies have carried out B2B marketing and creative advertising businesses in North America, respectively.
Cheil Worldwide has been integrating organizational functions to strengthen collaboration among its North American subsidiaries. The company reorganized its B2B marketing strategy and agency functions and transferred parts of Pepper NA and Founded's operations to existing North American subsidiaries such as McKinney. Iris Partners LLP in London was wound down because it was deemed a location with limited substantive commercial activity.
An advertising industry official said, "As data- and digital-based marketing rapidly expands, advertising companies are adjusting their strategies toward streamlining their organizations," and added, "Whereas expanding networks through M&A used to be a core strategy, recently they have been moving to a phase of integrating overlapping functions and slimming down their organizations."