omnicom

Where would the New York Times be without its recipes?; Cannes Lions deals with controversy; and Netflix wants to get ultra-personal with its ads.

The FTC approved the Omnicom-IPG merger, but with a brand-safety caveat: The agencies cannot create agency-level blocklists of any media that’s political or ideological. With Ad Fontes CEO Vanessa Otero, we unpack the consent order’s ramifications.

The FTC puts some odd stipulations on Omnicom-IPG; influencer marketing is the new normal; Google is cutting its smart TV group.

Expect more ad agency holdco consolidation in the next year; people are starting to talk like ChatGPT; inside the weirdness of matching political funds.

Sports sponsorships can play well for small brands; Perplexity was first to AI search ads, but advertisers waited for Google; and GroupM officially rebrands to WPP Media.

WPP’s GroupM is getting a new name; there’s no such thing as a TikTok ban at NewFronts; and Meta’s ad growth prospects might be plateauing.

Transparency has become the currency of credibility in advertising. Larger holding companies and black box AI platforms must recognize that their opaque practices are no longer sustainable.

Do Google AI Overviews really bring exposure to more websites?; Meta considered an all-ad Instagram feed; and agencies are cautiously optimistic even as tariff concerns threaten upfronts season.

Omnicom Group CEO John Wren told investors during Tuesday’s earnings report that the first quarter represented a “good start to the year” for the ad agency holdco. 

Omnicom and IPG have both received additional information requests from the FTC about their merger. Plus, publishers don’t know how AI overviews fit into their referral traffic.

Amazon’s ad tech ambitions are crowding out Amazon specialists; EU regulators have concerns about Apple ATT; and Google says breaking it up could threaten national security.

Google has been spotted triple serving ads to search pages. Plus, good luck getting ads next to Oscars content this year.

Like Kendrick Lamar during the Super Bowl halftime show, Interpublic Group CEO Philippe Krakowsky had a message for all the haters out there: the impending Omnicom merger won’t affect IPG’s ability to do business in the meantime.

Publicis looks to capitalize on potential fallout from the Omnicom/IPG merger; Google Cloud is seeing an influx of ad sales talent; and Spotify advises investors to be patient with its growing programmatic ads biz.

Why worry about AI replacing jobs when a megamerger might make them redundant?

Criteo’s Brian Gleason shared how it is working with agencies to capitalize on curation and measurement opportunities in retail media and CTV.

It’s not easy competing for business with massive holding companies (which are only getting more massive). But the Omnicom-IPG deal “also creates opportunities for the rest of us,” says Remy Stiles, North America CEO of programmatic agency Kepler.

Enjoy this weekly comic strip from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem … 

Mohegan and LiveRamp partner on a “casino media network;” Criteo hires its new CEO from the agency side; and Publicis Groupe consolidates

Tune into the first episode of the year with guest Andrew Frank, VP and distinguished analyst at research firm Gartner. We cover a lot of ground, from the impact of multiple major Big Tech antitrust trials to practical AI use cases (minus the BS).

Three years after launching its own data clean room, Roku is trying to bring something new to the table. On Monday, the company announced the launch of a new offering, the Roku Data Cloud, which allows marketers access to more granular streaming TV data via ad tech and agency API partners.

Trap More Flies With Honey Honey, a free browser extension that automatically finds and applies discount codes, is being accused of defrauding its users and the online content creators who championed it. That’s according to a YouTube tech investigator who goes by MegaLag. He alleges that the PayPal-owned Honey effectively steals the credit for online […]

2024’s most popular guest columns offer a snapshot of an industry in flux – and one that’s grown cynical due to repeated promises of unrealized change.

Omnicom is acquiring IPG. We unpack the proposed deal with ad agency expert Brian Wieser, founder of the constancy Madison and Wall.

Retail media and tech platforms now represent a return to agency scale dynamics. The proposed Omnicom and IPG merger is the latest example.

Antitrust regulation has counterintuitively favored the biggest ad industry players. Plus, another streaming service, anyone?

Publishers expect the agencies will eliminate tech redundancies as they consolidate, which could compel pubs to shed redundant tech themselves. The merger could also entrench principal-based buying, which may not be a bad thing.

Rival browsers raise an objection to Google being forced to sell Chrome; ad agencies pivot to software and services; and people are turning to chatbots instead of search, with error-filled results.

Ad industry growth will slow to single-digits next year; consolidation hits the CPG market; and predicting the future of the FTC based on a commissioner’s pitch to the president-elect.

Another big ad industry acquisition? Truly, it’s a Christmas miracle. Omnicom’s board of directors has unanimously approved a deal to acquire IPG, itself a major holding company.