Ad agencies are under threat, as platforms automate and AI replaces people, leading to massive change: layoffs, reorgs, mergers, new leadership, new tech and new pecking orders.
In the past year, IPG and Omnicom planned a merger to take on Publicis, and Publicis ascended to the top of the ad agency mountain, a process that started several years ago with its rocky acquisition of Sapient.
Meanwhile, WPP, once on top, is fighting back. Its current leader, Mark Read, announced this week he will leave at the end of the year. During his reign, WPP’s stock price declined and it lost clients, and many in the industry see his departure as a sign that he wasn’t right for the job.
On this week’s podcast, we analyze the threats that ad agency holding companies are facing from AI and each other, and how each agency’s strategy has either helped or hurt its ability to adapt to change.
Then, we discuss WPP Media’s midyear ad forecast report and the macro issues reshaping ad spend. Tariff news is better than it was a month ago, but the agency still revised its ad forecast downward, from 7.7% growth to 6% growth. And, strikingly, the report predicted that user-generated content will be the majority of ad spend this year.
Which leaves us with two takeaways on the state of advertising and media: the influencers have taken over, and so have the machines.
