We hosted an Expert Event with MDC Partners and The Stagwell Group on walled gardens Last week we had the opportunity to host MDC Partners and The Stagwell Group with Mark Penn and senior management teams. While we discussed the opportunities arising from the MDC Partners/Stagwell Group combination, we also gained insight how management sees walled gardens, what the rules are for playing in them, how they impact the ad landscape, and how they can help brands today and in the future. The increasing complexity of walled gardens Walled gardens refer to a range of technology or media information restricted to subscribers to a particular service. One key element highlighted in the presentation was the increasing complexity of the walled garden environment, with a growing number of products and services (Google has 300+ products across seven categories, while Facebook''s consumer offering has expanded to dating, marketplaces, gaming etc), leading to service overlap and competition. Marketing intermediaries and agencies crucial interfaces between brands and gardens While walled gardens'' service offerings are increasing, MDC senior management explained that agencies play a critical role with brands, helping them to navigate the products and ecosystem and implement marketing strategies in the walled garden environment and grow their business through them safely (privacy, brand safety, product launch, branding, efficient media investments etc). Read-across for advertising holdcos and S4 Capital While the presentation highlighted that smaller players, who are more agile, have an advantage in winning business related to walled gardens from the brands, we also believe that the advertising holding companies have a crucial role to play in helping their clients to navigate through the walled gardens'' increasing complexity. This supports our view that disintermediation risk is easing. As for S4 Capital, whose organic growth is closer to GAFAs than the...