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A long list of major marketers are on the prowl for new advertising firms, a signal that the ad recession may be easing but not necessarily a herald of better days for Madison Avenue. “Clearly we are seeing the beginnings of an ad recovery. The volume of ad reviews is way up,” says Russell Wohlwerth, principal of Ark Advisors, a consulting firm that matches ad firms with marketers. Randall Weisenburger, CFO of Omnicom Group, echoed those sentiments last week during a call with analysts, saying “new-business activity is improving.” But the industry isn’t celebrating yet. Ad executives and new-business consultants, who are hired by marketers to help them find new agencies, say an effort to tamp down ad agencies’ fees is playing an increasingly important part in the reviews.Read the full article