Agencies
State of Play
Revised Nov 1, 2026The moment. The holding companies reported, and the gap between them is the story. Campaign’s Elena Lewis has Omnicom’s organic revenue up 7.2% in Q3, from 6.1% in Q2 and 3.9% in Q1, with core revenue up 7% to $6.01 billion. Adweek’s Alison Weissbrot has WPP’s revenue less pass-through costs down 2.1% to $3.2 billion, narrower than Q2’s 2.8% decline, with WPP Media back to 0.3% growth for the first time in six quarters. Omnicom took Coca-Cola’s North America media account, which leaves Coke and PepsiCo having effectively swapped agencies in that market; WPP Media won Transport for London’s account, worth about fifty million pounds. The executive moves ran the same direction: McCann made Andrés Ordóñez global chairman, Publicis named Scott Hagedorn the first CEO of its Marcel AI platform, and Stagwell bought Freestar and put James Denton-Clark in charge of Europe.
The tension. The holdcos are moving onto the other side of the trade. Digiday’s Ronan Shields reads Stagwell’s Freestar deal as putting buying and selling under one roof, and Publicis now owns LiveRamp under an FTC firewall, so the firms that audit media are increasingly the firms that sell it. The way business is won has fragmented too: Digiday’s Seb Joseph finds no common pitch shape left across the earnings calls. Buyers are pushing Q4 money into social, video and retail media, and Digiday’s Sam Bradley has NBA linear and streaming inventory all but sold out across Peacock, Amazon and Disney for the 2026–27 season, which sends brands toward creators by default rather than by plan.
Who’s moving. Omnicom, at 7.2% organic. WPP, narrowing its decline to 2.1%. Coca-Cola, moving North America to Omnicom. WPP Media, on Transport for London. Stagwell, buying Freestar. James Denton-Clark, to Stagwell Europe. McCann’s Andrés Ordóñez, to global chairman. Publicis’s Scott Hagedorn, to Marcel. Skydance’s Jay Askinasi, on a unified ad organization. Media buyers, on an NBA season all but sold out. The American Entertainment Alliance, backing a 20% federal production incentive as a first step. Walmart, building its Q4 around a Muppets parody.
What the desk is watching. Whether Dentsu lands nearer Omnicom’s 7.2% or WPP’s 2.1%, and whether Stagwell’s clients ask which side of the Freestar trade they are on.
World Cup ratings surge fails to lift Premier League ad demand
Fox’s World Cup coverage drew 128 million viewers and lifted its ad revenue 28% to $4.2 billion, but buyers say that hasn’t translated into a rush for Premier League inventory.
Sinclair’s $3.25M Stirk buy reveals broadcast’s new consolidation playbook
TVREV’s Tim Hanlon reports that Sinclair agreed to acquire four Howard Stirk Holdings stations it already operates under a shared services agreement for $3.25 million.
Agencies debate who owns YouTube Shorts buying
Digiday’s Future of TV Briefing reports agencies are still sorting out which internal teams — social, video or TV — should take the lead on buying YouTube Shorts ads.
HuffPost’s national desk cut to three reporters as BuzzFeed layoffs continue
BuzzFeed laid off 10 HuffPost Union members, cutting the national desk from seven reporters to three. The desk numbered 14 a year ago — the once-Pulitzer-winning newsroom keeps unwinding.
Tatari: buyers still treat YouTube as digital, not TV, despite the scale
Tatari’s Dana Delle argues buyers still purchase YouTube like a digital channel, on CPMs and algorithmic targeting, even though Nielsen counts it as TV and its reach dwarfs linear: CNN, 240 million monthly YouTube views against 550,000 in primetime.
US TV upfront spending share returns to pre-COVID levels
VideoWeek’s Dan Meier reports that upfront commitments made up 75% of total deal volume this season, per Madison & Wall and Media Dynamics research. That matches pre-pandemic norms, reversing years of advertiser reluctance to lock in spend months ahead.
Publicis, Travis Kelce launch Tekta to unify fragmented NIL marketing
Publicis Sports, Travis Kelce and Lionsgate-owned 3 Arts Sports formed Tekta, a consulting venture giving advertisers access to Division I athletes across 68 Power Four schools with a unified measurement framework. Select Publicis Sports clients get early access.
Omnicom’s media chief: govern AI before scaling it
Omnicom Media Group’s Ben Hovaness argues AI adoption should start with data governance and human oversight, not speed. He says agencies will win by orchestrating AI across ecosystems and by agreeing on consistent outcome measurement, not by owning the technology.
Marketers chase ‘fandom’ as the new buzzword for brand loyalty
Digiday’s Kimeko McCoy reports that marketing execs are rallying around “fandom” as a way to embed brands in culture rather than advertise around it.
WPP’s legal woes mount, but clients aren’t fleeing yet
Digiday’s Michael Bürgi, Seb Joseph reports that WPP faces a former exec’s kickback lawsuit, a class action alleging execs misled shareholders for 19 months, and a Sony probe finding WPP kept 80% of publisher rebates. Clients like Coca-Cola still praise the holdco publicly.
VAB study: local TV news ads lift purchase intent and brand image
TV Tech’s George Winslow reports that a VAB/Dynata survey finds ads in local TV news boost purchase likelihood and brand perception across age groups, including younger viewers. The findings arrive as advertisers have grown wary of news environments over political polarization concerns.
Asda’s George taps Lucky Generals for its biggest brand push yet
Asda’s George brand launches “If you know, you know,” created by Lucky Generals, its first campaign leading the entire George brand. The homeware-led push spans TV, social, OOH, retail media and in-store, with fashion activity to follow later this season.
Ex-Banijay branded entertainment exec launches Impeto Media
C21Media reports that Carlotta Rossi Spencer has founded Impeto Media after exiting Banijay, where she headed branded entertainment business development. The new venture positions her as an independent player in brand-funded content and format development.
Havas Market wins Superdrug media account from WPP’s Mindshare
Campaign’s Shauna Lewis reports that aS Watson has moved UK media planning and buying for Superdrug, Superdrug Online Doctor and Savers to Havas Market, ending an 11-year run with WPP Media’s Mindshare. The Perfume Shop and other AS Watson brands are unaffected.
Chief Media buys Amazon, TikTok shops to build out commerce stack
Adweek reports that independent performance agency Chief Media acquired AMZ Advisers, an Amazon-focused consultancy, and social agency Reach Social, giving it retail and marketplace expertise and letting it cross-sell clients across services, CEO Scott Paternoster said.
JCPenney spoofs off-price retail with ‘Retail Rejuvenation Retreat’ campaign
Marketing Dive’s Chris Kelly reports that JCPenney is running a wellness-themed campaign that parodies off-price retailers, framed as a “Retail Rejuvenation Retreat.” Marisa Thalberg, marketing chief at parent Catalyst Brands, positions it as a way to break shoppers of bad off-price habits.
Holding companies rally around ‘outcomes’ as H1 2026 earnings buzzword
Digiday’s Michael Bürgi reports that Publicis, Omnicom, WPP, Havas, Stagwell, S4 and Dentsu all framed H1 2026 earnings around “delivering outcomes” rather than media planning. Executives admit privately that outcomes are hard to prove given too many external factors on consumer behavior.
Court filings: WPP insiders say GroupM ‘simplification’ was quietly abandoned
Digiday’s Seb Joseph reports that Exhibits in a wrongful-termination suit quote ex-WPP executives saying GroupM’s restructuring stalled by 2024, with cuts outpacing fixes. One called Choreograph’s data five years behind Publicis’s Epsilon.
Brand execs: audience fit beats celebrity wattage in collabs
Digiday’s Gabriela Barkho reports that at eTail Boston, UrbanStems, H&M and Chobani execs detailed how they vet partnerships. UrbanStems’ Laneige tie-up flopped on age-demographic mismatch, while H&M’s Anitta relationship earned it free multi-million-dollar World Cup media coverage.
MediaCo grows Q2 revenue 9% but profitability slides on digital costs
Inside Radio reports that MediaCo’s Q2 net revenue rose to $34 million, up 9%, with digital now 47% of ad revenue. But higher expenses drove Adjusted EBITDA down 38% to $942,000 and widened net loss 17% to $8.6 million.
Local TV’s consolidation-for-journalism argument echoes newspapers, radio
TVREV’s Tim Hanlon reports that broadcasters cite local news as justification for bigger scale, but newspaper and radio consolidation didn’t preserve newsrooms. Operators should demand measurable journalism commitments from deals, not assume scale alone helps local coverage.
Media placement itself becomes a creative lever, not just distribution
Campaign argues that as ad environments multiply, where and how a message appears is now shaping creative strategy, not just amplifying it. That blurs the old media-creative divide and pushes agencies to plan channel and concept together from the start.
Chartbeat exec: media’s next act is calibration, not transformation
Chartbeat’s Kiran Paranjpe argues publishers should stop chasing scale and instead double down on direct sales and loyal audiences. His pitch: differentiation, not platform-scale competition, is the durable edge as AI automates the rest.
Brands build in-house studios as Hollywood production dries up
The Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Weprin reports that brands like Nike, Ford and Coca-Cola are funding scripted content and launching in-house studios as TV ad campaigns lose reach. Struggling mid-size production companies are leaning into branded entertainment just to stay in business.
Tinuiti’s Klaassen on why drive still beats pedigree in ad-agency careers
TVREV’s Rio Damata reports that Tinuiti CEO Abbey Klaassen frames career advancement in agency/media work as a function of personal drive, explained in terms simple enough for a teenager. It’s a reminder that leadership pipelines in ad-tech and agencies still reward initiative over credentials.