MultiCultClassics

17642: The Casualties Of Cola Wars & Crumbling Corporations.

2026-10-26T00:13:22.125-05:00

Advertising Age published the latest Cola Wars dispatches, reporting Omnicom semi-rebounded from its PepsiCo global media loss by winning Coca-Cola North America media duties.

The Coke North America media business had been serviced by Publicis Groupe, who relinquished the assignment after nabbing the PepsiCo global media business from Omnicom sans a review. Publicis Groupe won the Coke North America media account in 2025, pulling it from WPP, who retains Coca-Cola global media and global creative duties. Oh, and Omnicom faced off against Dentsu to seize Coke’s North America media. Expect Omnicom to soon seek grabbing additional Coke business from WPP too.

The winding spectacle underscores how major brand business shifts between a limited number of holding companies. It’s a global game of musical chairs played with no more than four chairs—and rickety ones to boot.

In the end, workers at White advertising agencies and White media firms within holding companies are not only victims of restructurings, redundancies, and RIFs—they are also casualties of Cola Wars.

Omnicom wins Coca-Cola’s North America media account

By Ewan Larkin and Brian Bonilla

Coca-Cola Co. has awarded Omnicom its North America media account following a review in which the holding company went head-to-head with Dentsu, people familiar with the matter told Ad Age and Coke soon confirmed. The decision means Coke and rival PepsiCo have effectively swapped media agencies in an all-important market.

In hiring Omnicom, Coke gains an agency intimately familiar with the beverage business. Omnicom had worked on PepsiCo’s media for three decades until September, when PepsiCo announced it was moving global media to Publicis Groupe. Omnicom will continue to support creative, PR and sports marketing, PepsiCo stated at the time. That means the world’s largest agency company will hold significant portions of business for the fiercely competitive beverage rivals in the crucial U.S. market.

Coke didn’t immediately provide comment, then issued a statement confirming the news. Omnicom referred inquiries to Coke.

In its statement, Coca-Cola shared that choosing Omnicom fits its commitment to align specialized capabilities with market-specific opportunities. “By bringing media, data, CRM, loyalty and creators together within one connected ecosystem, the North America operating unit can move beyond channel-based execution toward more integrated consumer experiences,” the company stated.

Following PepsiCo’s decision to hire Publicis, Coke moved swiftly to review its North America media account, where Publicis was the incumbent, Ad Age first reported in September. WPP, Coke’s global incumbent, opted not to participate in the pitch, setting up a shootout between Omnicom and Dentsu, the latter of which works with Coke in Japan and Korea.

WPP Open X will continue to serve as Coca-Cola’s global creative partner, the beverage giant announced.

WPP also retained Coke’s global media, data and technology business, as Ad Age previously reported, following a separate review that originally also included Publicis. “We’re proud to build on our partnership with The Coca-Cola Company and the trust they’ve placed in us to help drive their next chapter of growth,” Cindy Rose, WPP’s CEO, said in a statement.

Coca-Cola ranked as the 24th-largest U.S. advertiser in Ad Age Brand Report 2026, with estimated U.S. advertising costs of $2.2 billion in 2025, up from $2 billion a year earlier.

The new structure will be implemented in phases starting Dec. 1, Coke announced.

“We began this process with a clear objective: ensure we have the right partners, capabilities and operating model to continue to lead in a rapidly changing marketing landscape,” Manolo Arroyo, executive VP and chief marketing and customer commercial officer at Coca-Cola, said in the statement. “The outcome reinforces our confidence in the strength of our global marketing ecosystem and positions us to accelerate growth through deeper consumer understanding, greater agility and the responsible application of emerging technologies.”

17641: On Integration & Elimination.

2026-10-25T11:24:33.742-05:00

Digiday reported Omnicom honchos declared the integration of IPG is nearly completed.

Gee, it’s odd IPG is still being discussed, as the White holding company was officially erased almost one year ago.

Of course, there are still restructurings, redundancies, and RIFs ahead.

Digiday illustrated its content with the plant image depicted above, presumably symbolizing harmony and growth. Pruning imagery would have offered more appropriate symbolism.

Omnicom said its integration of IPG is nearly done, and the results are starting to show it

By Michael Bürgi

In announcing its solid third-quarter earnings on Thursday, Omnicom appears to be on track to wrap up its integration of Interpublic Group, which it closed on buying just under a year ago.

Omnicom CEO John Wren declared as much in an interview with Digiday, during which he, chief growth and solutions officer George Manas and chief technology officer Paolo Yuvienco explained the holdco’s priorities going forward — which include pushing the Acxiom/Real ID identity solution hard in the market, connecting that to Omnicom Media and ensuring that connection extends into all of Omnicom’s agencies through its Omni marketing intelligence platform.

A quick glance at Omnicom’s Q3 numbers shows consistent growth in organic revenue, which hit 7.2% this quarter compared to Q3 in 2025. Total revenue was $6.42 billion, and net of disposed assets was $6.01 billion. Q2 growth had reached 6.1% and Q1 had only managed 3.9% over their prior-year quarters. Similarly, operating margin increased in Q3 to 18.2%, up from 17.8% in Q2 and 14.8% in Q1.

“You can see that our growth is improving, as we anticipated it would when we did the [IPG] transaction, and sequentially every quarter this year we’ve been getting better,” Wren said, “The good news is the new Omnicom is formed.”

With only a few non-core assets to dispose of, mostly in the specialty marketing businesses (the company has sold $412 million of assets already), Wren and co. are moving ahead with rolling out more agentic tools in the media space. Yuvienco described the Omni platform has “natively agentic, and has been for over two years now.” He said the mission is to use that ability “to more rapidly turn knowledge into action and action into outcomes. We have been at the forefront of kind of this new agentic revolution before agents were even known to the general public.”

The execs said they are not resorting to what’s become known as principal AI — a coin termed in part by consultant Steve Boehler of Mercer Island Group, that essentially amounts to giving clients free access to AI tools and products in exchange for a deeper commitment to purchase principal media inventory.

“We have principal media products that clients opt into using, and they get savings,” explained Wren. “But it’s only a percentage of clients’ spend that we’re talking about for these principal products. And AI is a part of everything we do, but we haven’t tied access to AI or any advances that we see to principal media.”

Manas reemphasized Wren’s explanation, saying “we’re not trading kind of AI credits for proprietary media positions,” pointing instead to leveraging “the strength of our identity with the strength of our media position to create new value opportunities for clients. Sometimes those value opportunities manifest as proprietary media products, or sometimes they manifest as engineering innovation.”

When pressed on the cost of AI rollouts and use across the holdco, Wren stressed that employees are being taught and trained on optimal uses of AI — while Omni has built-in limits and governors to how it can be used.

Omnicom Media (which represents 53% of the holdco’s revenue), Manas said, will be the critical juncture through which the merged assets of IPG will be expressed, in light of the current marketing landscape. “The reality [is] that marketing has become extraordinarily fragmented and complex, and AI is only accelerating that,” said Manas, who argued that Acxiom and Real ID are critical to winning and servicing clients given their ability to identify consumers and their habits.

“We’re helping our clients get a deep understanding of their consumers and the ability to target them much more precisely, so that they have that persistent identity to to help solve for that fragmentation,” said Manas. “We’ve also connected that identity into our media scale, and that allows us to reach consumers with unbelievable precision to help our clients get more value out of every dollar invested.”

And here’s where Yuvienco sees Omnicom’s efforts to push agentic systems and tools into the media side as an advantage. It’s a step toward “shortening the media supply chain,” he said. “That doesn’t mean eliminating the supply chain, but how do we drive more effective visibility into those consumers at the endpoints at publishers? And how do we do it more efficiently to drive more working media dollars for our clients? Ultimately, we’re really pushing forward with that ecosystem.”

Given the recent string of bad behaviors by agents, from jumping out of sandboxes to accessing bank accounts without being given permission, Yuvienco stressed human oversight along the way. “There’s still a human in the loop,” he added. “In a lot of these workflows, especially when money is involved, we’re not putting credit cards into our agents to then form the transaction.”

17640: On Winners & Losers In Adland.

2026-10-24T08:59:42.175-05:00

The Drum published a lengthy perspective inspired by Publicis Groupe CEO Arthur Sadoun stating the top three White holding companies—Publicis, Omnicom, and WPP—win 91% of ginormous media pitches.

The figure also translates to global media accounts regularly shifting between Publicis, Omnicom, and WPP. So, every big victory for one company results in a major loss for the incumbent. This further means people working at White holding companies can expect to routinely experience devastating RIFs based on clients’ whims.

Coupled with the sweeping layoffs already planned by restructuring corporations, it portends a dim and dismal forecast for the Adland job market.

The op-ed author whines how the happenings signal the death of innovation. For agency drones, it all marks the rise of insecurity.

Has Publicis boss Arthur Sadoun written the advertising industry’s epitaph?

By Mark Palmer

Arthur Sadoun says three holding companies now win 91% of the biggest media pitches. It sounds like a victory lap. But Mark Palmer hears a funeral march – for originality, challenger thinking and the very reason brands hire agencies in the first place.

Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun recently offered a statistic that could be carved into the advertising and media industry’s gravestone. Citing COMvergence data, he announced that the ‘big three’ – Publicis, Omnicom and WPP – now win “91% of the biggest media pitches.”

It feels like victory. Fewer competitors, high share of major reviews, future cost efficiencies. It’s Coke-versus-Pepsi logic: as long as a few giants fight, they all win.

This is not a win. If you still believe great advertising, media thinking, and talented people can make a difference for brands, this isn’t a triumphant statistic. The industry many once loved has arrived at a bizarre juncture. Some believe it is right on target, while others feel it has missed the point entirely.

Consolidation of pitches suggests agencies are rarely hired for their distinct personalities, rogue brilliance, or ability to inject strategic and creative friction.

The ‘model’ pivot

Sadoun argues that merging IPG into Omnicom has “clarified” and “simplified” the market. He frames it as a natural evolution, comparing it with sectors like telecoms. It’s a telling analogy. If Coke uses telco provider A and Pepsi uses provider B, nobody at Coke remotely cares. Telco selection is not where strategic or creative advantage is created. It’s a utility decision.

The most troubling word Sadoun uses is his description of the three big groups as different “models.” Machines have models. Cars have models. Large language systems have models. When did the brand-specific, market-specific, human art of communication become a choice of three “models,” as if there were only Plans A, B, and C on a fixed menu?

Over many years, holding companies have commoditized what advertising and media once were. They’ve smoothed rough edges, marginalized awkward characters, and systemically removed challenger thinkers who created any friction. They’ve optimized integrated systems that plug tidily into a client’s own machine, as interchangeable as petrol stations.

When agency choice is about “which model best fits our structure,” decisions no longer reflect the transformative potential of people, skills, and imagination. You’re not selecting a partner; you’re choosing an operating system.

Don’t just blame procurement or holdcos – blame the brands

Procurement has grown more dominant. Holdcos have been obsessed with efficiencies and transformation narratives. None of this is surprising. But the cumulative effect is that short-term value and efficiency have been systematically prioritized over finding agencies/people who can challenge how a brand thinks and what it could become.

Marketers let this happen. They allowed pitches to morph from strategic/creative crucibles into calculation exercises. They watched as evaluation shifted from “Who will challenge us in the right way?” to “Who ticks the boxes most neatly?”

Sadoun’s own description of client behavior, in his interview with The Drum, is revealing: “More and more clients know exactly what they want. They consider it is way more efficient to spend their time and their money digging deeper and kicking the tires of the partner they are interested in, rather than organizing a beauty contest for months that basically disturbs the entire organization and makes them lose focus on their business.”

If we accept that clients “know exactly what they want,” and that pitches are a nuisance that “disturbs the entire organization,” the next step is bleakly obvious: why use agencies at all? Why not just run an internal execution team to operate the marketing machine?

Brands no longer look for partners who will positively challenge them. They are buying ready-made suits in three colors. Every time a pitch is allowed to become a safe, uninspired, low-friction decision, the industry sinks a little further into mediocrity.

For whom the bell tolls

John Donne’s line, popularized by Hemingway – “Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.” – could have been written for this moment. When someone died, the church bell rang, and villagers sent someone to find out who it tolled for. Donne’s point was that it always tolls for all of us because we are all part of the same whole.

When Sadoun proudly laid out his vision of a simplified, consolidated holding company landscape, he was tolling the bell for the death of what the advertising and media industry once stood for: deep insight, disruptive ideas, innovation, imagination and the people in it.

Five major agency groups have collectively cut more than 26,000 jobs in just 18 months, under headings like “AI efficiency savings” and “model transformation.” Famous agency brands have had their identities stripped away and folded into corporate entities. DDB, FCB, Wunderman, JWT disappeared. These weren’t random sets of initials. They represented change philosophies.

In the 1980s, Emmerson Foote, Fairfax Cone, and Don Belding developed a matrix exploring whether a purchase decision was high- or low-involvement and driven by thinking or feeling. It changed how agencies investigated audiences and planned campaigns.

Lester Wunderman, dubbed the father of direct marketing, didn’t simply tweak media spend. His agency invented entirely new mechanics: toll-free 1-800 numbers and the first-ever customer rewards program for American Express.

James Walter Thompson grasped the potential of a full-service agency model built on powerful emotional relationships between brands and consumers.

DDB, created by Ned Doyle, Maxwell Dane, and Bill Bernbach, replaced formulaic, shouty hard-sell with minimal, intelligent, profoundly honest creative storytelling.

These names represented people and thinking, not “models.”

What does a three-model world do to talent?

In the short term, fear keeps people put. When thousands of jobs have been cut and options limited, the instinct is to avoid making noise. Don’t challenge. Don’t rock the big boat. Service the model.

Over time, that instinct ossifies. People become reluctant even to suggest change, for fear of destabilizing a vast machine. Careers become centered on survival, not impact.

The future consequence is obvious. Genuinely different thinkers, the troublemakers, misfits, and round pegs in square holes, either leave for independent agencies or exit the industry altogether. Future generations who might once have seen advertising as a place to think differently look elsewhere. The industry becomes optimized around models rather than minds.

When did brands stop wanting to be challenged?

For decades, the rationale for hiring an agency was that it brought external stimulus, intellectual friction, and fresh, sometimes uncomfortable, perspective. Pitches weren’t tedious “beauty contests” or price-comparison tests. They represented opportunities for disruptive change. Different agencies brought different philosophies, processes, and people. That was why clients staged reviews. They chose agencies because those agencies challenged them and, on a basic human level, they had genuine chemistry.

Look at what Steve Jobs did when he returned to a struggling Apple in 1997. Faced with a near-bankrupt company, he didn’t call in a holding-company procurement deck. He initiated a rapid, high stakes review among a handful of elite agencies. TBWA\Chiat\Day won with ‘Think Different’ and the ‘Here’s to the crazy ones’ script. Jobs’ first reaction was blunt: he called it “shit.” But he was challenged, persuaded, and changed his mind. It turned into a defining chapter in Apple’s turnaround.

At one point, CMOs put serious thought into developing pitch briefs, treating them as rare, golden opportunities for change. Media agency people sat with business leaders, not just procurement intermediaries. Now, in too many cases, pitches are contained within rigid processes run by controllers and advisors, and the goal is to minimize disruption rather than find better thinking. If Sadoun is right about where we are heading, fewer pitches will happen at all.

Regression to the mean: the risk of ‘best practice’ pitches

The phrase ‘pitch best practice’ sounds reassuring. It’s a contradiction in terms. Best practice quickly becomes code for ‘what everyone else is doing.’ Once brands adopt identical RFP templates, use the same scoring systems, and repeatedly shortlist the same three holding companies, they are engineering regression to the mean. The more average inputs you aggregate, the more predictably you land on an average output.

Outside the holding-company universe, the independent sector teems with entrepreneurial energy. In the UK alone, more than 25,000 independent agencies span creative, communications, marketing, and media. Many were founded by people who left holding companies specifically because they felt constrained.

Twenty-five thousand agencies are too many to navigate. But that is precisely what pitch consultants and procurement specialists should be doing. Their job should be to explore that ecosystem, filter it, and surface hidden gems, the rogue operators and challenger minds who might see your problem completely differently.

Instead of simply presenting the usual suspects, they should include a ‘mystery house,’ an option that doesn’t fit the model but might fix the real problem. Steve Jobs would never have accepted a list of three giant holdcos as the horizon of possibility. Why should you?

Treat pitches as catalysts for transformation, not admin

In 2009, John Lewis reignited its brand after a competitive pitch won by then-independent Adam&Eve. Working with Craig Inglis, then head of brand communication, the agency helped reshape John Lewis from the inside out. One pitch created a partnership that lasted 14 years and delivered some of the most iconic campaigns of modern times.

McKinsey’s State of Marketing Europe 2026 report ranks branding as the top priority for senior marketers. It beats performance marketing, martech investments, and generative AI, which ranks 17th out of 20.

When leaders say they must sharpen value propositions and stand out in an overcrowded marketplace, why narrow pitch processes and limit innovation options? If you want distinctiveness, you don’t achieve it by funneling all decisions through the same processes with the same players. You relearn how to brief laterally, asking for bigger, brand-level change, and seek a variety of challenging, independent perspectives alongside the big networks.

Independents pushing back

If holding companies try to standardize, many independents are helping brands rediscover the value of proper briefing and pitching. Stephen Knight, founder of Pimento, the UK’s largest independent marketing, and communications network, which connects brands with over 190 independent agencies and more than 6,500 specialists, recently launched an initiative called the ‘Brief Exchange.’ As Knight put it: “We created this initiative, not because brands need another briefing template, but because the conversation around what makes a good brief has never been more important.”

The industry’s problem is not the paperwork. It’s the mindset. Do you want to be genuinely challenged, or just reassured that you have selected the right ‘model’?

Two possible futures: Sadoun is either right – or spectacularly wrong

Future one: Sadoun is right. The bell keeps tolling. The industry continues to consolidate. Innovation, challenge, and personality drain away. Pitches dwindle. The curious, the ambitious, the misfits move on.

Future two: brands and independent agencies fight back. Sadoun’s vision is filed alongside some of history’s most famous misjudgments: Harry Warner of Warner Bros asking in 1927, “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” Dick Rowe of Decca Records telling Brian Epstein, “Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr Epstein,” as he rejected The Beatles.

Stop kicking tires
The smart CEO, or CMO, who actually wants brand advancement rather than maintenance should resist what is convenient and “sensible.” Stop treating advertising and media as a mechanical act and viewing pitches as a search for the most efficient fit.

Design your pitch process with inbuilt strategic friction
Expect your own assumptions to be challenged before anyone shows you a spreadsheet. If nothing makes you uncomfortable, you are not being stretched.

Look beyond ‘The Big Three’
Insist your advisors bring you independent agencies and challenger minds, not just default options.

Seek change
Treat major pitches as rare opportunities to inject fresh thinking and radical ideas into your business, not a burdensome project for procurement to “manage.”

Don’t brief normally, brief radically
Keep an open mind about what a good answer might look like.

The bell is tolling for what advertising and media thinking used to bring. The only real question is whether a brand lets it toll for them too.

17639: Under 40 40 Under 40…?

2026-10-23T00:36:44.555-05:00

Advertising Age presented the 2026 40 Under 40 honorees.

Given the steep decline of hiring Gen Y/Millennials in Adland, it’s a wonder Ad Age could even identify 40 candidates.

17638: Lavazzapalooza Leaves WPP’s Cup Half Empty.

2026-10-22T00:21:33.237-05:00

MediaPost reported Italian coffee brand Lavazza awarded its global media duties to Omnicom Media, saying arrivederci to incumbent WPP.

So, lots of WPP drones may soon be leaving the global flaming dumpster in search of barista jobs.

Omnicom Wins Lavazza’s $110 Million Global Media Account

By Steve McClellan

Iconic Italian coffee brand Lavazza has awarded its global media business to Omnicom Media following an eight-month competitive pitch led by Ebiquity and involving multiple holding companies, including incumbent WPP.

The assignment calls for Omnicom Media to support Lavazza across Europe, The Middle East and Africa, North America, and Asia Pacific through a globally coordinated, full-funnel model led from Italy.

Lavazza media expenditures in 2025 were approximately $110 million according to agency research firm COMvergence.

OM’s strategic approach, integration capabilities across markets including retail media were cited as factors weighing in the agency’s favor.

The Lavazza award is the latest in a string of global and regional awards and retentions for Omnicom Media this year. Earlier wins include Adidas, Delta, Dyson, IBM, L'Oréal DACH, Mercedes Benz, Novo Nordisk, Uber and Xiaomi – totaling more than $7.5 billion in billings.

Lavazza revenue totaled 3.9 billion euro ($4.38 billion) in 2025, up 15.7%. Also last year the company extended its endorsement deal with Italian tennis great Jannik Sinner (pictured above) through 2030.

17637: On The Trend For Pitching Pitches.

2026-10-21T00:16:36.611-05:00

Advertising Age reported Publicis Groupe CEO Arthur Sadoun opined on the “trend” of White holding companies being awarded global brand assignments sans traditional pitches.

As previously noted, account reviews for major chunks of business have become closed affairs, exclusive privileges available only to a handful of White holding companies.

Because M&A reduced the number of big players, clients are left with even fewer choices.

The commoditization of Adland makes the limited options indistinguishable too—all White conglomerates look alike.

So, it’s not surprising matters progressed to the next level—that is, shootouts are deemed pointless exercises.

During the Omnicom acquisition of IPG last year, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)—a UK regulatory organization—launched an investigation to determine if the deal would impact industry competition.

The acquisition was ultimately approved, yet competition has clearly been impacted.

Corporate Cultural Collusion is increasingly the norm—standard operating procedure now openly recognized and executed by conspiring participants.

Non-White advertising agencies—as well as most independent White advertising agencies—are effectively eliminated from consideration. Or relegated to consultants of color and/or Prime Redlining victims.

What’s happening today is not a trend; rather, it’s an evolution of underhanded practices and fortification of systemic racism.

Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun on why more clients are choosing holding company solutions without pitches

By Brian Bonilla

Publicis Groupe is seeing major marketers move away from formal account reviews, instead opting for in-depth conversations with agencies they already consider the right fit. Arthur Sadoun, its chairman and CEO, attributed this trend to the consolidation of rival holding companies Omnicom and Interpublic Group of Cos., along with shifting technology needs from marketers.

“What I find remarkable—in terms of trend—is that you have more and more clients that know what they want to do,” Sadoun said in an interview, declining to comment on specific clients.

His comments come after Publicis won Microsoft and PepsiCo, two of this year’s major account moves, without traditional review processes.

Clients are now realizing “it’s way more efficient to spend their time and their money digging deeper and ‘kicking the tires,’ as they like to do, on the partner they are interested in, rather than this kind of tap-dancing beauty contest that we all know, that lasts for months, that is a distraction, and that at the end of the day normally gets you to the partner you were preferring at the beginning anyway,” he said.

The three largest global agency holding companies—Omnicom Group, Publicis Groupe and WPP—accounted for 91% of holding company media wins in the first half of 2026, up from 74% a year earlier, according to COMvergence data cited by Publicis. (Accenture Song, the industry’s No. 2 player behind Omnicom according to Ad Age Datacenter’s latest Agency Report, sits within consulting giant Accenture and therefore isn’t considered a traditional agency holding company.)

“I think we should all be very thankful to Omnicom for this move, because it is the entire industry that is benefiting from it today,” he said. The benefit of fewer players, he said, is that “there is a very clear differentiation in terms of positioning among the three,” which results in “an increasing number of clients who know exactly what they want for their business. And that means that they truly understand the difference between the different models.”

This clarity, he said, is boosting Publicis’ growth outlook. Publicis generated more than €400 million (over $446 million) in net new business during the first nine months of the year, the company reported today. It anticipates these wins to account for 2 percentage points of organic revenue growth in 2027.

Publicis reported organic net revenue growth of 5% in the third quarter and reaffirmed its full-year 2026 guidance of 4.5% to 5% organic net revenue growth.

Publicis also reported a client retention rate close to 100% for the first nine months of the year, which Sadoun said is more meaningful than individual account win announcements, which can create a misleading impression of an agency’s overall business performance. “This race for new-business press releases is a kiss of death,” he said. “Because it gives a false impression of dynamics, meaning what matters is not what you win; it’s the net between what you win and what you keep.”

He said new business contributes slightly more than a third of Publicis’ growth, with the remainder coming from existing client relationships. That dynamic is particularly evident in creative services. Publicis’ Intelligent Creativity business, which accounts for 25% of group net revenue, recorded low-single-digit organic revenue growth in the third quarter.

Sapient’s growing role in new business

Publicis is integrating its technology consulting business, Sapient, more closely with its media and creative operations to meet the rising demand for AI-driven marketing transformation. This approach is helping the company secure new assignments, often without the need for formal pitches, Sadoun said.

“We don’t have a brief where the AI transformation question is not raised,” he said. “And one of the reasons why we’re winning—and sometimes without pitches—is because not only do we have the data, but we have the engineers and the technology to make it work.”

In production, Sapient is developing technology that allows clients to customize content at scale using data. On the media side, it is helping clients modernize technology infrastructure to enable more personalized advertising. “Production is not about studios anymore,” Sadoun said. “We all have great studios. The question is: do you have the right tech platform to deliver at-scale customization connected with the data?”

The strategy is beginning to translate into improved performance for Sapient. Publicis’ technology business, which represents 13% of the holding company’s net revenue, returned to growth in the U.S. during the third quarter. Globally, the practice remained slightly negative as clients continued to delay more expensive enterprise transformation projects, but Publicis expects the business to resume growth in the fourth quarter.

17636: On Buying Back Freedom From Omnicom.

2026-10-20T00:15:40.684-05:00

Advertising Age reported Jordan Zimmerman bought his White advertising agency back from Omnicom.

Zimmerman probably steered his luxury yacht and flew his private jet to Omnicom headquarters and handed a briefcase full of loot to Omnicom Chairman-CEO-Pioneer of Divestiture John Wren.

Inside Zimmerman’s decision to leave Omnicom

Jordan Zimmerman has bought Zimmerman Advertising back from Omnicom 26 years after selling the agency to the holding company, he confirmed to Ad Age.

Zimmerman said he started the conversations because he wanted more freedom to steer the shop, which he founded in 1984, into its next phase. The agency works with clients including McDonald’s, Planet Fitness, Office Depot, Blue Compass RV, Six Flags and Unleashed Brands.

The buyback will let Zimmerman invest further in the agency’s ID Graph, which he said reaches more than 90% of U.S. adults, as well as hyperlocal targeting and measurement and AI-enabled creative and production. It also gives the shop “more control over the talent we bring in and how we structure client relationships.”

Omnicom declined to comment on Zimmerman. The agency group has been pruning parts of its portfolio since acquiring Interpublic Group of Cos. late last year; in January, experiential shop Jack Morton separated from Omnicom in a private equity-backed transaction.

17635: On Changing C-Suites In Adland.

2026-10-19T13:29:21.490-05:00

More About Advertising wondered about the adverse effects of C-suite revolving doors, musical chairs, and restructuring redundancy RIFs.

Management expert Peter F. Drucker recognized the leadership challenge of striking a balance between change and continuity.

White holding companies are striking out in that area.

Is the spate of senior hires having the right effect?

By Emma Hall

WPP has very recently promoted media boss Adam Gerhart to global chief client officer and appointed Veriça Djurdjevic (ex-Channel 4 and PHD) as UK Media’s chief client officer, while Tyler Turnbull is the new head of WPP Creative. Over at MSQ, Stagwell EMEA CEO Peter Reid has joined as group CEO.

Much is made of these senior hires, always positioned as being an important step for clients, helping to deliver growth, and being part of a grand plan á la WPP CEO Cindy Rose’s “Elevate 28”. But word from inside the agencies is that clients are getting mightily fed up with losing the people they trust and work with every day as redundancies deplete teams and drain morale.

When agencies are facing so much change, it makes sense to make big changes around structure and staffing – and sometimes there are clear gaps to fill. But it’s less logical to lose sight of the employees who are the glue of agency life.

17634: Monks Seeks Monkeys…?

2026-10-18T00:46:34.089-05:00

This actual job listing for Monks is labeled “Future Position: Creative Director.”

The description also explains:

This posting is not tied to a current open role, but is an opportunity to join our talent pool for future positions. By applying, you’ll be considered as opportunities that align with your experience that become available.

First, the person who drafted the job listing could benefit from tapping a Creative Director with copy experience. Or they could’ve used AI, no?

Second, given the shaky financial state of parent company S4 Capital, a future opportunity with Monks is far, far away—and may never materialize.

Finally, any potential position probably pays peanuts.

17633: Top Ten BS @ VML.

2026-10-17T15:15:15.341-05:00

Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity ranked VML New York the top White advertising agency in the US. VML Chief Creative Officers nabbed Top Ten honors too.

WTF.

The awards say a lot about Cannes Lions and VML—as well as the sorry state of Adland.

Sorry, but many lauded leaders at VML inherited success via mergers, acquisitions, and restructurings versus talent, performance, and integrity.

It all begs the question: Why is VML Global CEO-WPP Creative CEO Jon Cook bailing out?

He’s clearly in the running for top bullshit artist.

17632: Got Multicultural? LERMA/ Wins Real California Milk.

2026-10-16T18:39:59.918-05:00

MediaPost published unintentional Hispanic Heritage Month content by reporting LERMA/ gained AOR status for Real California Milk, the consumer-facing brand of the California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB).

LERMA/ once served as a Latino-focused advertising agency alongside The Richards Group, eventually breaking away on its own around the time Stan Richards left the building.

Here’s hoping Real California Milk comes with more than real California crumbs.

LERMA/ Named AOR For Real California Milk

By Steve McClellan

Dallas-based full-service agency, LERMA/ has been named agency of record for Real California Milk, the consumer-facing brand of the California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB), following a competitive review led by Mercer Island Group.

The organization had previously worked with Deutsch LA for many years although it wasn’t immediately clear if that agency was still the incumbent when the review was called or if it participated in the review.

The account encompasses creative, strategy, social, media, data and analytics, multicultural marketing and website responsibilities.

LERMA/ is tasked with building greater meaning and relevance around the Real California Milk seal, with the goal of increasing consumer preference and purchase of seal-stamped dairy products at retail.

“LERMA/ stood out from the beginning for the passion they brought to our business and their understanding of the opportunity ahead,” said Adrienne Daniels, Executive Vice President, Marketing at the CMAB. “Beyond the strength of the creative thinking, we felt an immediate cultural fit with the team.”

The first work from the partnership is expected to launch in January 2027.

The CMAB represents California dairy farmers, and its mission is to promote demand for milk and other dairy products made in the state. That’s a separate organization from the California Milk Processor Board (CMPB) which represents the companies that pasteurize, bottle, and distribute liquid milk. Their iconic “Got Milk?” campaign was created by Goodby Silverstein & Partners in the 1990’s. CMPB and Goodby parted ways in 2017 after 25 years.

17631: On Complaints, Crisis Management, And Conversations.

2026-10-15T16:29:14.602-05:00

Advertising Age published a thoughtful perspective on cultural cluelessness, unintentionally underscoring how bias can come from the offenders and offended alike.

A complaint about your ad is information—it is not a verdict

By Stephen E. Terrell

In the fall of 1994, I put a naked man on a billboard in Fort Lauderdale. He lasted six days.

In fairness, he had already lasted 158 years. He was the young man seated by the sea in a Hippolyte Flandrin painting from 1836 that hangs in the Louvre, where to my knowledge nobody has ever called 3M about it.

The board was for Page & Associates, a Cleveland company that bought life insurance policies from people who were dying, so they could have the money while they were still alive to spend it. In 1994, that mostly meant gay men with AIDS. The copy ran five words: “Terminally ill ... there are options.” Then a phone number. No logo the size of a Buick. No starburst.

I chose the painting because my audience already knew it. For years, a print of it on a gay man’s wall was a signal flag hidden in plain sight. Any other gay man who walked into that home knew exactly what it meant. Everyone else saw a nice museum reproduction. I took the flag off the living room wall and ran it up a billboard. A man driving past did not need a headline to tell him who the board was for. The same ad had been running in gay magazines. Companies like mine were buying so much space there that Ad Age covered it that May. The billboard was that magazine ad with the volume turned up. The University of Miami Business Law Review later recorded it as the first billboard for a company in that business.

The location was not an accident, either. I put my boards in the gayest neighborhoods I could find. This one was aimed across four lanes of highway at the Copa, the biggest gay disco in South Florida. You find out where your audience dances, and you face the board that way.

It also happened to stand directly above a sports bar.

The owner complained. He told the local paper that the message was one thing but the naked man was tasteless. 3M, which owned the board, took it down six days into a 60-day contract.

Today, that is where the story ends. The brand posts a statement. The creative disappears. Somebody junior gets blamed, and everyone is at lunch by noon.

Here is what happened in 1994. The board went back up the next day. Nobody apologized. Nobody painted on a fig leaf. The company’s attorney made a call, and then a 3M representative did something radical. He sat down with the bar owner and explained what the ad was for. According to 3M’s spokesperson at the time, the owner had not fully understood it. Once he did, he agreed to have it back.

One conversation, 24 hours, same naked man.

That bar owner taught me three questions I still ask before anybody touches a campaign.

Who is complaining? The man downstairs was not my audience. My audience was across the highway, in line at the Copa.

Do they understand it? He saw a nude. He did not see men in his own city who were out of money and out of time. Somebody told him, and he changed his mind. People do that more often than a crisis plan assumes.

Is the audience you built it for complaining? Because when they are, you pull it, and you say thank you. I have done that, too. Years later I tested a Betty White radio spot on “The Rush Limbaugh Show.” It delivered 20-30 solid leads every time it aired. Then her fans started calling with one question: “Does Betty know?” I pulled it. The numbers said stay. The audience said go. The audience outranks the numbers.

Treat those two complaints the same way and you will kill your best work and keep running your worst.

Brands spend years and millions asking people to trust them. Then one stranger raises his voice and the brand drops its own work like a hot casserole. The audience notices. If you will not stand behind your ad for 24 hours, why would anyone stand behind your brand for 24 years?

The painting, for the record, is still in the Louvre. Still naked. Still up.

17630: How To Partner With Non-White Advertising Agencies.

2026-10-14T19:17:48.144-05:00

Advertising Age published probable Hispanic Heritage Month content providing pointers on partnering with multicrumbtual advertising agencies.

While the perspective spotlighted common mistakes, potential pitfalls, and marketing microaggressions, there were no blatant references to cultural cluelessness, crumbs, or Prime Redlining.

So, it sorta feels like whitewashing systemic racism.

When to partner with a multicultural agency—and how to structure the work

By Sabrina Sanchez

For many agencies, creating campaigns for multicultural audiences is a challenge. Some handle it in-house, translating existing work or trying to tack on cultural relevance at the end. But agencies that specialize in multicultural work say that approach leaves little room for cultural insight to shape the strategy. Ad Age asked three members of the Ad Age Small Agency Network with Hispanic and multicultural expertise—Cien+ (CulturePlus Group), BeautifulBeast and Macías Creative—when to call in a partner, how to divide the work and how to manage the client relationship. The following guide was assembled from their answers.

Step 1: Check when the work calls for a partner

Macías Creative leaders—Marcos Macias, founder and chief creative officer; Alex Macias, managing partner and chief operations officer; and Ernesto Ruiz, executive director of strategy and accounts—identified three situations that call for cultural expertise:

If the assignment explicitly targets Hispanic or multicultural audiences

Bring in a partner while developing the strategy.

If growth depends on a market where Hispanic consumers are a major economic force

Bring in cultural expertise, even if the brief does not explicitly name that audience. Macías Creative cited markets such as California, Texas, Florida, New York and the Southwest where winning with Hispanic consumers can be critical to growth.

If cultural nuance is central to the strategy or idea

Consider a multicultural agency partner, even if the brief does not name a particular audience. Macías Creative pointed to cultural spaces involving food, family, sports, music, identity and traditions—all of which are places where deeper fluency can help shape the work.

The agency also offered signs that a team may need outside expertise:

• If research is being used as a substitute for established cultural expertise.

• If a few Hispanic people on the team are being treated as proof of Hispanic marketing capability; that capability also requires dedicated expertise, experience, tools and processes.

• If the U.S. Hispanic market is being approached as one audience, without accounting for differences in country of origin, language preference or relationship to American culture.

Another sign, Macías Creative said, is asking someone at the end of the process whether the creative “feels right.” That person “probably needed a seat at the table much earlier.”

Flor Leibaschoff, BeautifulBeast’s co-founder and CCO, said general-market agencies should not wait for a sign; they should already be working with Hispanic and multicultural agencies. To her, a plan built around translating general-market work, rather than developing a strategy for the audience, already shows the need for a different approach.

Claudia Avans of Cien+ posed a broader question: “Do we have the right perspectives at the table for this opportunity?” Cultural insight can help an agency understand a particular audience, she said, and it can reveal shifts that matter to the wider market.

Step 2: Decide whether you’re creating or adapting

How an agency approaches its creative determines when a multicultural partner needs to join and what they can contribute.

If the work needs a new strategy, platform or idea that will resonate with Hispanic audiences

Bring the partner in from the beginning while the insight and creative direction are still being developed. “If a perspective could change the strategy, give it a chance to shape the strategy,” Avans said.

If the assignment involves adapting an existing idea

For an assignment focused on adapting an existing idea for a specific audience or market, bringing in that expertise later can sometimes make sense, Macías Creative said. Even then, Macías Creative said both agencies should discuss the audience’s needs and agree on their approach at the outset. The partner should help determine whether adaptation is the right assignment.

Joining early lets a partner help shape the insight, idea and plan. Once creative is underway, their role can narrow to changing what has already been decided. “They become translators and fixers instead of strategists,” Leibaschoff said. If collaboration cannot begin at the pitch or strategy stage, she said, bringing the partner in for the brief is the minimum.

Step 3: Agree on how the agencies will work together

The next decision is what expertise the assignment needs, and how each agency will contribute.

If the assignment calls for several kinds of expertise

Avans described several ways to assemble a team: a lead agency can bring a cultural partner into the strategy phase; two agencies can build the brief together and split leadership by expertise; a partner agency can join for a few critical sessions; or different partners can lead at different stages. A cultural agency might also bring in a technology, data, creator or community partner when the work calls for it.

If the question is who works directly with the client

Leibaschoff named three arrangements she has seen work: an introduction, where the general-market agency connects the partner agency with the client and lets it work with them directly on that part of the business; white-label work, where the partner agency works behind the scenes under the lead agency’s name; or a hybrid, where the partner meets the client but the lead agency keeps the relationship. Any arrangement can work “as long as it’s agreed on from the start,” she said. Cien+ has also worked both behind the scenes and directly with clients, depending on the assignment.

Macías Creative draws a different line. It will not take an assignment where its team has no direct client contact, at least for key meetings. The agency says passing cultural insights through another team can weaken the collaboration and reduce the partner agency to an execution role. One setup Macías Creative described involves a small senior team working alongside the lead agency from the strategy stage.

Before work begins, agree on who owns the client relationship, who presents the cultural insight, who makes decisions, how feedback and approvals move, how the work is credited, and how fees and billing will work.

Those choices can lead to different arrangements. In a healthcare partnership described by Cien+, the agencies led the general and Hispanic market work respectively and shared the client relationship. On a consumer goods launch described by Macías Creative, the lead agency kept the client relationship and led strategy, creative and execution, while a senior Macías team contributed cultural insight from the strategy stage.

Step 4: Avoid the mistakes that weaken partnerships

The agencies pointed to five recurring problems:

1. Bringing in expertise too late—or giving it too little time. Once strategy and creative are set, a cultural partner has little room to shape either.

2. Leaving roles and fees unclear. Responsibilities, decisions, client contact and billing need to be settled before work begins.

3. Falling back on translation under deadline pressure. Even with a partner agency involved, a team may revert to translating general-market work, reducing that partner to a translation role.

4. Creating a one-person department. A single Hispanic employee is expected to cover strategy, creative, media and social listening. “That’s a lot of hats for one head,” Leibaschoff said, “and it’s not fair to them or to the work.”

5. Treating the partner as competition or as an execution vendor. “If you value the expertise enough to bring in a partner, give them a real seat at the table,” Macías Creative said.

Step 5: Consider what the partnership can add

Sharing work with another agency may raise concerns about revenue and the client relationship. Leibaschoff argued that the greater risk is failing to help a client pursue the opportunity: the client may eventually find someone else who will. “It’s not about splitting the pie; it’s about making the pie bigger,” she said.

Macías Creative made a similar point: work that initially looks like shared revenue may lead to additional, dedicated budget for multicultural efforts.

Avans framed the benefit in terms of what the lead agency can solve for its client: “The lead agency becomes even more valuable because of the ecosystem it can bring together.”

This story used AI-assisted tools to summarize and structure insights from Ad Age’s original reporting. It is based solely on the responses Ad Age received for this story, and was reviewed by editors and reporters to ensure accuracy, clarity and context.

17629: On Grey Matters.

2026-10-13T00:14:54.382-05:00

Advertising Age reported on executive moves at Grey that were overshadowed by the resignation of VML Global CEO-WPP Creative CEO Jon Cook, adding accelerant to the global flaming dumpster.

Back in 2020, Grey almost vanished via plans to fold the White advertising agency into AKQA—until staffers and clients protested. The merger reignited in 2024–2025 and dissolved in 2025 when Grey shifted under the Ogilvy Group banner.

Now it appears even Grey employees don’t wanna be associated with Grey, as the Global Chief Creative Officer bailed out to launch his own White advertising agency.

Meanwhile, other Grey executives were shuttled to different positions within the single White operating company.

Instead of asking, “Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?” the question is, “Pardon me, would you have Grey pooped on?”

Grey’s global chief creative officer leaves to start his own agency

By Brian Bonilla

Multiple leadership changes are underway at Grey, according to an internal memo Laurent Ezekiel, global CEO of The Ogilvy Group, sent this morning, which Ad Age obtained.

Most notably, Gabriel Schmitt, Grey’s global chief creative officer, is leaving to launch his own agency, Ezekiel wrote in his memo. Schmitt’s departure from the WPP agency is effective Oct. 1.

“For a creative of Gab’s caliber, this marks a natural evolution in his leadership journey, which we are proud to champion,” Ezekiel wrote.

Schmitt wasn’t immediately available for comment. He joined Grey as global CCO in March 2023 after serving as co-chief creative officer of FCB New York. During his tenure, Grey produced work including Anheuser-Busch InBev’s “For Every Golden Moment,” which Ezekiel described in his memo as the brewer’s biggest-ever global campaign, as well as “SOS POS” for BCP Bank, which won a Creative Data Grand Prix at the 2026 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Two other Grey leaders are making moves within WPP. Global Chief Client Officer Jason Kahner and Global Chief Strategy and Data Officer Jonathan Lee will move into dedicated WPP global client and strategy leadership roles for Henkel and Kenvue/Kimberly-Clark, respectively, according to Ezekiel’s memo. Those transitions will take place over the next few months.

‘Grey remains Grey’

The moves represent another step in Grey’s integration with Ogilvy, which began in May 2025. The agencies have maintained their individual brands while increasingly operating as part of a broader Ogilvy Group.

Grey’s creative leadership will now report to Liz Taylor, Ogilvy’s global chief creative officer. This officially leaves Grey without a traditional global leadership team; its global CEO, Laura Maness, departed last year.

“Broadly speaking, reporting lines will remain as is—in most instances, routing directly through local office leadership and respective regional structures, and ultimately up through me,” Ezekiel wrote. “This gives teams the autonomy and ability to make decisions closer to client and other local considerations.”

The latest changes are intended to give Grey’s regional and local offices greater responsibility while connecting them more directly with Ogilvy’s broader capabilities, Ezekiel said. Grey’s local office leadership and regional structures will remain intact, according to the memo. Its teams will also continue to pitch for business and produce work under the Grey name, and its culture, social channels and email signatures will remain unchanged.

Grey teams will also have increased access to The Ogilvy Group’s capabilities across sports and entertainment, PR, health and innovation, as well as WPP’s technology offerings.

“Grey remains Grey,” Ezekiel wrote. “Day to day, Grey teams will continue to identify, pitch, win and create work as Grey.”

17628: On Powerade’s Performative Poppycock.

2026-10-12T16:42:15.378-05:00

Advertising Age reported on Powerade—via Ogilvy, WPP Open X, and WPP Production—taking a performative stand against the Sydney Sweeney Novig campaign.

It’s dim-witted divertsity, divertorial, and divertisement drivel.

As previously noted, a naked Sweeney plays perfectly to the young male-dominated Novig audience.

On the flipside, who is Powerade appealing to? The social post depicted above addresses an exclusive bunch.

Most Powerade fans wouldn’t know Ogilvy, WPP Open X, or WPP Production. Hell, the majority of WPP drones display indifference to the segregated silos.

Powerade brags about its alleged legacy of supporting women’s sports. Okay, does The Coca-Cola Company award the average woman athlete the same $pokesperson contract as her male commercial counterpart? Don’t bet on it.

Powerade continues to run a distant second to Gatorade. And now the brand is striking out against Sweeney’s curves.

Powerade rebukes Novig’s nearly naked Sydney Sweeney ads

By Jon Springer

Powerade has delivered a response to Novig’s scantily clad Sydney Sweeney campaign: women’s sports have never been “just” sports. The Coca-Cola-owned sports drink brand is joining the backlash against the prediction market company’s controversial creative with its own digital outdoor ads that celebrate women athletes’ determination and resilience. Supported by content on Powerade’s social channels, the work turns Novig’s “Just Sports” slogan into a rebuke of the ads that have been criticized for sexualizing women in sports.

Ogilvy, part of WPP’s dedicated Coke agency, Open X, touted the campaign in a social media post today that emphasized Powerade’s history of supporting female athletes. The post depicts the response running in Times Square with an adjacent image of the Novig ad.

“When the conversation around how women are portrayed in sports started to pick up, we felt it was important for Powerade to share our perspective and reinforce what’s always been at the heart of our brand: athletes,” Leah Macko, Powerade’s VP of brand marketing, said in a statement.

“We’ve long believed that there’s no ‘just’ about what it takes to compete, especially for women in sports, so we saw this as an opportunity to celebrate the determination, resilience and impact female athletes bring to their sport,” she said.

Novig’s “Just Sports” campaign, which launched Sept. 9, features Sweeney appearing almost nude—with only strategically placed sports equipment covering her body—to promote its focus on the sports prediction market. The campaign spans digital advertising, social media, online video and out-of-home placements, including in Times Square, throughout football season.

Novig did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Powerade campaign.

After its debut last month, many female athletes swiftly denounced the ads for sexualizing women and undermining their achievements in sports.

But Novig has since doubled down, releasing a second Sweeney spot over the weekend called “No BS.” The company cited rising trading activity and a spike in app downloads as evidence that the campaign is working.

Sweeney is an equity investor in Novig and helped shape creative direction and strategy, including by suggesting that Novig center its message around its sports-only focus, according to Novig CEO Jacob Fortinsky. The “Just Sports” campaign was developed in-house, led by head of creative Alex Thompson, working with Sweeney.

“We have enormous respect for female athletes and the continued growth of women’s sports,” Fortinsky told Ad Age. “We’re focused exclusively on sports. Sydney’s not a female athlete and was not claiming to be one.”

Powerade’s investments in women’s sports include two NCAA March Madness campaigns with Flau’Jae Johnson, Paris Olympics work featuring Sha’Carri Richardson and Katie Grimes, and campaigns with Alex Morgan and Tatjana Smith. The brand said it will continue that support in 2027 through its partnerships with the U.S. Women’s National Team and the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Contributing: Brian Bonilla

17627: On Charlie The Tuna & Dead Fish.

2026-10-11T00:57:58.613-05:00

MediaPost recently reported StarKist named Tombras as its AOR, consolidating the business from multiple White advertising agencies to one. The StarKist VP of Marketing/Innovation gushed about bringing new energy to the brand and spotlighting iconic critter Charlie the Tuna.

The banner above appears to represent the new campaign. Sorry, Charlie—the work sucks and the responsible creative team should be canned like cheap tuna.

Starkist Consolidates Account, Selects Tombras As AOR

By Fern Siegel

Tombras has been named agency of record for StarKist.

The Knoxville, Tenn.-based agency will lead brand strategy, integrated creative development, media planning and buying, organic social and community management, measurement and analytics.

Previously, several agencies handled the brand. Now, it is combined into a single team.

“StarKist has tremendous brand equity, and this partnership gives us an opportunity to build on that strength with a fresh, integrated approach. Together with Tombras, we are bringing new energy to the brand, putting Charlie the Tuna back in the spotlight and creating work designed to drive relevance and long-term growth,” Michael Merritt, Jr., vice president, marketing/innovation at StarKist, told Agency Daily.

First campaign work begins this fall and will feature the brand's long-term mascot. Media spending for 2025 was estimated at $7 million, according to COMvergence.

“Partnering with StarKist is exciting for me personally on multiple levels. It's special to work on a truly iconic brand with so much equity. StarKist is a brand I grew up with. Now, we have the opportunity to introduce the brand to a new generation of consumers,” added Dooley Tombras, president at Tombras.

Tombras’ creative work also includes E.L.F., Rubbermaid, Rippling and Arby’s.

StarKist Co. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dongwon Industries Co., Ltd.

17626: On The New Age Of Abuelas.

2026-10-10T00:09:16.726-05:00

Advertising Age published a Hispanic Heritage Month perspective on giving a multicultural marketing makeover to abuelas.

The new abuelas—it’s time for Hispanic marketing to retire an outdated archetype

By Jorge Becerra

Few characters are as familiar in Hispanic advertising as the abuela. For decades, she has been one of the most heavily used creative shortcuts for signaling family, tradition and cultural authenticity.

But while longevity has changed what later life looks like, advertising’s version of the abuela has barely changed at all. In fact, the abuela that advertising keeps putting on screen increasingly bears little resemblance to today’s abuelas.

Recently, I started reading Andrew Scott’s The Longevity Imperative, and it got me thinking about how our idea of later life is changing dramatically, and how slowly advertising has changed with it. People are living longer, but culturally we still compress older people into a remarkably narrow set of roles.

For Latina women, that disconnect is especially striking.

According to the CDC, a Hispanic woman who reaches 65 can expect, on average, another 23 years of life. In other words, 65 is not the beginning of the epilogue. It can be the beginning of another two-decade chapter.

And those years are not necessarily being spent withdrawing from the world. According to AARP research, 62% of Hispanic adults 50-plus say they maintain a healthy, active lifestyle. And 34% are focused on learning new skills.

We are comfortable showing abuela teaching. Why not show her learning?

Working life also deserves a place in the frame. Hispanic adults have higher labor force participation than white and Black adults across the 55-plus, 65-plus and 75-plus age groups. Working longer is not necessarily a choice, but it certainly challenges the image of later life as a permanent retreat from the world.

And yes, there is also life beyond giving romantic advice to grandchildren. Among Americans 65-80, 40% report being sexually active, and nearly three-quarters of those say they are very satisfied with their sex lives. Research also suggests older Hispanic adults are having even more sex than non-Hispanic white people the same age.

That probably isn’t the abuela most advertising has been showing us.

This is a new generation of abuelas: women who are living longer, working longer, traveling, exercising, dating, creating, spending, caring for multiple generations and continuing to reinvent themselves well into what we once considered “old age.”

Yet our cultural image of them hasn’t caught up.

In AARP research, 76% of Hispanics 50-plus said older people are underrepresented in advertising, and 84% said they would be more likely to buy from a brand featuring people their age. Perhaps even more revealing, 60% said they try to keep up with trends, compared with just 24% of the general 50-plus population surveyed.

That is a very different consumer from the one much of Hispanic advertising keeps casting.

For U.S. marketers, this represents more than an opportunity for better representation. It is a challenge to rethink one of Hispanic marketing’s most persistent cultural archetypes.

The abuela can still represent family, wisdom and tradition. But she can also represent ambition, independence, vitality and possibility.

The opportunity is to give abuelas the same dimensionality we increasingly demand for every other audience.

Marcelo Arango, founder and CEO of Young Aurelius, a strategic consultancy focused on helping companies navigate demographic change, foster intergenerational collaboration and better understand older generations, believes the shift requires marketers to rethink the assumptions they have long made about aging.

“We are long overdue for a new playbook. Longevity didn’t just add years to the end of life. It created an entirely new stage of adulthood. The demographics have changed, but we are still marketing to a world that no longer exists,” said Arango.

For our industry, that should force a creative reset.

Abuela has long been one of Hispanic marketing’s most efficient cultural shortcuts. Put her in an ad, and within seconds we communicate heritage, family, care and authenticity.

But shortcuts become stereotypes when we stop updating them.

In recent years, we have become much better at questioning one-dimensional representations of Latinas, or younger generations. Yet somehow, abuela remains stuck in an outdated script.

The next generation of abuelas can still embody wisdom, tradition and connection. Those qualities have not disappeared. What has expanded is everything around them: their economic lives, ambitions, relationships, identities and sense of what is still possible.

Perhaps the most respectful thing Hispanic marketing can do is stop treating older Latinas primarily as custodians of the past.

They are also participants in the present and, most importantly, authors of the future.

17625: On Cookie-Cutter Corporate Construction.

2026-10-09T00:17:57.156-05:00

Advertising Age reported McCann CEO Tyler Turnbull will take the WPP Creative Global CEO title from departing VML Global CEO-WPP Creative Global CEO Jon Cook.

So much for a thoughtful transition. Then again, given the speed at which WPP CEO Cindy Rose replaced former WPP CEO Mark Read, hyper-accelerated musical chairs appear to be standard operating procedure for the single White operating company.

This also calls into question the transparency Rose once claimed to foster. How long was Turnbull courted behind the scenes? Surely the offer wasn’t hatched last week after Cook announced his resignation.

Turnbull is abandoning Omnicom, triggering suspicion of poaching and/or restructuring resentment. Regardless of the motivations, he’s hopping from the proverbial frying pan into the global flaming dumpster.

In closing, it’s worth noting Cook—a performative proponent for DEIBA+ and certified defender of Divertsity—ultimately replaced himself with two White men.

McCann CEO Tyler Turnbull set to take over as WPP Creative global CEO

By Brian Bonilla and Ewan Larkin

WPP is set to appoint Tyler Turnbull, the global CEO of McCann, as global CEO of WPP Creative, according to people familiar with the matter. Turnbull would succeed Jon Cook, who is due to step down by March.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Turnbull’s remit would extend beyond WPP Creative. Turnbull interviewed for the Ogilvy global CEO role before Laurent Ezekiel’s appointment in late 2025, according to people close to the situation.

WPP, Omnicom, McCann and Turnbull did not immediately return requests for comment.

Turnbull became McCann’s global CEO last December, following Omnicom’s acquisition of Interpublic Group of Cos., and now leads one of Omnicom Advertising’s three creative networks alongside BBDO and TBWA.

Before McCann, Turnbull rose through the ranks at IPG’s FCB. He joined in 2014 to revive the struggling Canadian office, later led New York, became North America CEO in 2019 and ascended to global CEO in 2022. FCB has since been folded into BBDO following the Omnicom deal.

Contributing: Judann Pollack

17624: Cooking A Heaping Helping Of Lame Duck.

2026-10-08T00:10:48.578-05:00

More About Advertising presented yet another take on the impending exit of VML Global CEO-WPP Creative CEO Jon Cook, even comparing the move to Omnicom Advertising Group CEO Troy Ruhanen relinquishing his position.

Okay, except Ruhanen is an established, respected, and decorated leader succeeded by an established, respected, and decorated leader. Cook and his crony, not so much.

Cook remarked, “I look forward to working closely with Cindy (Rose, CEO) and the WPP and VML leadership teams over the coming months to execute a thoughtful transition.”

Huh? Cook isn’t scheduled to leave the building until March 2027—nearly six months away. Cook’s thoughtful transition will take roughly twice as long as his hasty decision to skedaddle.

Then again, former WPP CEO Mark Read made a similar statement about thoughtfully transitioning before being rapidly replaced by Cindy Rose.

Cook is essentially a lame duck—maybe he should duck out pronto.

VML’s Cook quits as WPP Creative boss

By Stephen Foster

When any industry goes through a process of upheaval – especially when it involves heavy redundancies – it’s right to focus on the troops as they bear the cost, often losing their jobs.

But being one of the managers charged with overseeing such upheavals can’t be much fun unless terminating people rocks your boat.

It’s interesting that VML’s Jon Cook is following hard on the heels of Omnicom Advertising Group’s Troy Ruhanen in stepping down from one of the key jobs as the industry is changing: Ruhanen, who’s being replaced by BBDO’s Andrew Robertson, masterminded (if that’s the right word) the merger of FCB into BBDO and demise of DDB as Omnicom bought IPG; Cook had the even bigger job of merging his VML with WPP’s JWT, Wunderman and Y&R to create what was the world’s biggest creative agency. At the time few people on this side of the Atlantic knew what VML was. To say that executives at the other agencies were surprised is a huge understatement.

Yet Cook, who’s being succeeded by another lifer at the one-time Kansas City digital agency, Eric Campbell, is reckoned to have done a pretty good job, eventually overseeing Ogilvy, Grey, Burson, AKQA, Landor and Design Bridge & Partners as head of the recently-minted WPP Creative. We wait to see if this really will become one company (which would be one way to get rid of even more people.)

Cook says: “This has been one of the hardest decisions I have ever made in my life. But after three decades of pouring everything I have into this agency and all of WPP, it is time to build something new. VML and WPP Creative are operating from positions of tremendous strength and this is the right moment for other voices to lead. I am immensely proud of our teams, the iconic work we produce with our clients and the one-of-a-kind culture we have built. I look forward to working closely with Cindy (Rose, CEO) and the WPP and VML leadership teams over the coming months to execute a thoughtful transition.”

The job facing the head of any creative agency these days is finding enough work at the right price to keep everyone gainfully employed. This is particularly tough for many ad folk who, incorrigible optimists that they are, think mainly of growth and, gleefully, of poaching talent from their rivals as they grow.

17623: Cooking With The Same Old Recipe, Serving Up The Status Quo.

2026-10-07T00:15:23.439-05:00

Adweek published a different spin on the impending exit of VML Global CEO-WPP Creative CEO Jon Cook, stressing how he’s handing the baton to one of his “best friends in life.”

Soon-to-be successor Eric Campbell is a VML veteran currently serving as WPP Creative North America CEO, a title he’ll retain upon gaining the VML Global CEO role.

According to Adweek, “Knowing VML and WPP Creative will be in the hands of someone who has helped [Cook] build the business has made it easier to step away.”

Easier for who? And easier how?

Cook admitted in Advertising Age that he only started considering career options last summer—mere months ago. So, it was a relatively quick decision. Ditto the appointment of his replacement.

Through messy mergers and radical restructuring, WPP likely has a surfeit of qualified and available C-suite executives. Identifying the next leader for the largest White advertising agency and entire creative practice (although Campbell is not assuming full WPP Creative CEO duties) in the global flaming dumpster should have warranted an extensive, exhaustive search.

Under Cook, VML once boasted extreme dedication to DEIBA+ and Divertsity too.

Recent PR also positioned Cook as caring, concerned, and committed to people.

What’s more, WPP leadership expressed awareness of constant churn adversely affecting morale, trust, and psychological safety.

Yet when presented with an opportunity to fill one of the biggest positions in Adland—a choice that impacts WPP employees worldwide—Cook instantly opted for cronyism and selected a White man.

Jon Cook on 30 Years at VML and Handing the Agency Over to His Best Friend

The WPP exec said he’s ready to climb a new career mountain.

By Christopher Cicchiello

Jon Cook’s 25 years at VML was full of changes, from the early startup days to mergers and acquisitions to rebrands and integrations. Alongside him the entire time was Eric Campbell, who he described as not just a partner in his career, but one of his “best friends in life.”

Now, after announcing his departure from the agency on Friday, Cook has the rare fortune of handing the reins to his long-time friend, who succeeds him as global CEO of VML while retaining his dual role as North America CEO of WPP Creative.

Knowing VML and WPP Creative will be in the hands of someone who has helped him build the business has made it easier to step away, Cook said.

(Read the full story here.)

17622: One Less Cook In The Kitchen At WPP.

2026-10-06T00:12:25.884-05:00

Advertising Age spotlighted VML Global CEO-WPP Creative CEO Jon Cook, who will abandon his acronyms and the global flaming dumpster in March 2027 “to pursue an undisclosed entrepreneurial venture involving advertising and technology.”

Cook contends his exit doesn’t reflect reservations about the Roserrection. Okay, maybe somebody should define “net impression” for the man.

The single White operating company doesn’t offer entrepreneurial opportunities involving advertising and technology?

Cook admits he started considering his career options last summer, making his departure a relatively quick decision.

In the end, Cook joins a growing number of WPP leaders who’ve bailed out or were booted out in the past couple of years.

WPP will struggle to be the Trusted Growth Partner For The World’s Leading Brands when leaders are regularly shuffled, shuttled, and shat on.

A key characteristic for gaining trust is consistency.

Right now, WPP puts the con in consistency.

Jon Cook plans to leave WPP after 30 years at VML—what his exit signals for himself and the holding company

By Brian Bonilla

After three decades helping build VML from a small Missouri agency into a formidable global network—and leading some of WPP’s biggest agency integrations—Jon Cook is getting ready to leave and build something outside the holding company model.

Cook, who serves as both CEO of WPP Creative and global CEO of VML, will leave WPP by March to pursue an undisclosed entrepreneurial venture involving advertising and technology. He said only that it will sit “outside the holding company landscape” and will involve agencies, creativity and technology. He added that he expects mergers and acquisitions will remain part of his career.

Eric Campbell, currently North America CEO for VML and WPP Creative, will succeed him as VML’s global CEO in March, while retaining his North America CEO role. WPP plans to announce a successor to lead WPP Creative soon.

Cook reflects on what’s next after WPP

Cook took on the WPP Creative role in February, placing him at the center of WPP CEO Cindy Rose’s effort to simplify the world’s fourth-largest agency company. He said that his decision to leave WPP reflected a desire for new challenges, rather than doubts about the turnaround.

“It has nothing to do with my optimism about WPP’s future,” Cook told Ad Age.

Cook said his reflection began around the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this summer. While he described it as VML’s best showing—VML and Ogilvy ranked second and first among creative networks, respectively—Cook said that the achievement prompted him to consider what else he wanted from his career. “I want to do something more entrepreneurial, more independent, and just completely different,” he said.

Cook’s cardiac arrest experience nearly four years ago, which left him without a pulse for nine minutes, also reshaped his mindset. “When that all happened to me, I realized I’m here for a reason—to find my joy in life. I definitely found that joy in VML and WPP; I’m just going to go find it somewhere else,” he said.

Telling Rose was difficult. Cook said he had never been more nervous for a meeting. “I have to be honest: I think her first reaction was shock, sadness, probably some anger,” he said.

The pair spent months working through the decision, he said. Rose ultimately supported him and insisted on an extended transition. Cook said he will help Rose shape WPP Creative’s succession.

“Jon’s contribution to VML, WPP and our entire industry has been extraordinary,” Rose said in a statement. “He is an exceptional builder—of enduring client partnerships, world-class agencies and a culture built on generosity, optimism and genuine care for people. I am deeply grateful for everything he has done for WPP, and I appreciate his commitment to partner with us through March 2027 to ensure our teams, clients, and new leaders maintain their incredible momentum.”

A career of innovation and integrations

Cook joined VML in 1996 as an account manager, becoming its 28th employee. He rose through the agency as it expanded beyond its Kansas City, Missouri, roots and became a leader in digital marketing. WPP acquired the agency in 2001 and Cook was named VML’s global CEO in 2011.

He helped orchestrate two major combinations of WPP’s agencies. After leading the formation of VMLY&R following VML’s merger with Young & Rubicam in 2018, Cook became global CEO of the current VML when WPP combined VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson at the beginning of 2024.

This February, Rose expanded Cook’s remit to oversee WPP Creative, bringing agencies VML, Ogilvy, Grey, Burson, AKQA, Landor and Design Bridge & Partners under one operating structure. Cook’s initial focus was aligning agencies around four regions and regional profit-and-loss structures, removing barriers to collaboration while retaining agency identities.

He cited Kenvue and Heineken as major creative wins from the structure. “That wouldn’t have been possible in the past, either because of misplaced incentives, operational barriers or just bad blood,” Cook said.

He also helped extend enterprise solutions capabilities embedded in VML and Ogilvy across WPP under a WPP Enterprise Solutions brand, which now reaches other business units including media and production, as well as additional clients.

Cook attributed his integration abilities to communication and relationships.

“I’m not an operational genius. I’m not a super-consultant brainiac,” Cook said. “One of the things I’ve appreciated about both [former WPP CEO] Mark Read and Cindy Rose in my career … is they recognize that maybe the skillset needed for success isn’t those typical things. Rather, it’s someone who cares about people, cares about communication, celebrates success and puts people in successful positions.”

17621: On Creator Presence At Advertising Week New York.

2026-10-05T09:34:07.276-05:00

Digiday published a lengthy report on Advertising Week New York, spotlighting the increased presence of creators at the exclusive event.

No word if the creator reverence and respect extended to creators of color.

‘We’re all going to live with uncertainty forever’: Advertising Week New York opens amid industry rebuild

By Kimeko McCoy and Seb Joseph

Nobody at Advertising Week New York this week will be stuck for conversation, though to be fair you could have said that about any of the last ten. Organizers claim more interest every year, and the trade press, Digiday included, has a habit of calling each one pivotal. What’s different in 2026 is how much of the business is being rebuilt around the people who work in it, with plenty of them turning up unsure where they’ll fit once it’s done.

Ask the execs heading over to Midtown’s The Penn District and the work that keeps coming up is implementation.

“We’ve moved quickly from experimentation to implementation,” said Alistair Hill, CEO & co-founder of brand uplift firm On Device. Roblox’s vp of global partnerships and advertising Stephanie Latham, said last year’s conversations were about how comfortable marketers felt using AI, and that they’ve since struck enterprise agreements with AI partners. Kochava CEO Charles Manning wants to see how far agentic AI has moved from talk to operations. He said CFOs are taking a more active role in discussions about costs, and security teams are paying closer attention to how first-party data could leak into AI models. Hill’s worry is trust, because faster optimization means little if nobody can trust the data and measurement behind it.

Implementation, in other words, comes with a long list of questions nobody has settled yet, and plenty of the execs heading over say they’re going mainly to listen. Channel Factory CRO Nico Greco and Summit House co-founder Steven Cundari both described the week as a chance to team up. “I want to understand where our clients and partners are in their technology journeys,” said Greco of what he wants to get from the meetings he’ll be having throughout the week.

Much of that listening will happen away from the stages. The Trade Desk opens the week this afternoon with drinks at The Perch, the rooftop on top of PENN 2 — a few minutes’ walk from the main venue. Amex Ads has the Riff Raff club in the evening. Ad tech’s card players will be at the Sigma Software invite-only poker night, which is into its fifth year. For anyone who’d rather sit down over lunch, The Landing at PENN 1 has private dining rooms right on the doorstep, and Bar Primi on West 33rd Street takes groups. Speakers and top-tier pass holders get the Chase Media Solutions lounge on the second level. By Tuesday night, some of the crowd will have drifted down to Little Rebel in the East Village for Proeller’s fringe party.

Creators have their own circuit this year. Meta is running a Creator’s Lounge on the second level for creator pass holders and Dhar Mann, Advertising Week’s first chief creator officer, hosts a karaoke night tomorrow and an omakase dinner with Rick Ross on Wednesday. There’ll be plenty of creators to fill them. Ruth Mortimer, global president of Advertising Week, expects around 2,500 creators this year, up from 1,000 creator tickets last time. She and Mann have set a target of $100 million in creator deals coming out of the week over the next 12 months.

It’s a long way from how creators used to land a meeting with a CMO here. “I used to joke, the only CMO meetings we were getting were if they had a 12-year-old daughter who watched our creators,” said Adam Wescott, CEO and co-founder of independent content and media studio Home Game Studios. The welcome is, indeed, warmer than it used to be. Trevant GM Kristina Coughlin said creators have become “a core part, often a leading part” of advertisers’ marketing mix, whereas in previous years they were an extra. Wescott wants to see what comes of it once the week is over. “Creators don’t just want the invite to help promote ticket sales,” he said in an email. “They want real deals to come from it.”

AI and creators come with the territory at an event like Advertising Week. Measurement tends to get less air time, though the arguments over it have been building all year. AI-driven shopping is pulling budget out of search, while creators and social platforms want credit for sales that close somewhere else. Newer sellers like ChatGPT are asking advertisers to spend before they can show what the money did. Kochava’s Manning will be watching how those conversations play out over the next few days: “Our sideline conversations are deliberately focused on deep, structural partnerships rather than transactional pitch meetings. Specifically, our calendar is booked with meetings in three categories: Enterprise Marketers seeking truth and leverage, ecosystem and platform partners that want strategically minded growth and organizations that want true AI-driven transformation in their processes.”

None of this gets settled by Thursday, and Mortimer isn’t pretending otherwise. “We’re all going to live with uncertainty forever,” she said. “So let’s try and find the opportunities together.”

AWNY wants creators in the room. Creators want to know what’s in it for them

At this year’s Advertising Week New York (AWNY), creators aren’t just part of the programming. They’re seemingly part of the draw for the event itself.

AWNY is trying something new this year. The conference brought on creator and entrepreneur Dhar Mann on as its inaugural chief creator officer. With Mann’s appointment comes the $100 Million Creator Challenge, a set of “interactive 30-minute experiences pairing leading talent with major CMOs to create ideas, content, connections and real business outcomes,” per the AWNY site.

There will also be an exclusive happy hour for creators, execs and cultural leaders, a curated dinner and a night out. The pitch to creators is clear: come to Advertising Week and maybe you’ll leave with a CMO-signed contract.

“It’s exciting more advertiser-first events are inviting creators, but what will be most telling is the results post-event,” said Adam Wescott, CEO and fo-counder of Home Game Studios, and Mind Chatter Media.

It’s true the ad industry is taking creators more seriously. Just look at industry tentpole events, like the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this past summer. Creators all but stormed the French Riviera, looking to strike deals with business leaders. Dinners, key notes and other events that were usually reserved for CMOs were also hosting creators.

While event organizers roll out the red carpet for creators, the question is whether or not the benefit is mutual. That’s what Wescott has top of mind heading into this year’s AWNY, he said.

More ad industry events are starting to bring creators in not just as panelists and talent, but potentially to boost reach and promotion for these events themselves, he said. The question is: what’s in it for creators outside of a trip and photo op?

“Creators don’t just want the invite to help promote ticket sales. They want real deals to come from it,” Wescott added.

What we’ve heard

“For us it was important [Dhar Mann’s involvement] had a business outcome. We’ve hand-picked a group of brands and we’ve asked them to identify what budget they’re spending creators. Then we’re getting them in the room with the creators here. We’re tracking it because we asked the brands up front to confirm what they were planning to spend.”

— Advertising Week global president Ruth Mortimer

Advertising Week New York by the numbers

• About 2,500 creators are expected this year, up from 1,000 creator tickets last year.

• A $100 million target for creator deals coming out of the week will be tracked over the next 12 months against creator budgets brands confirmed up front.

• Nine stages and 36 day tracks.

• Advertising Week’s own realtor network, built with the creator platform Breakr, gives it access to around 350,00 creators.

• Brand marketers are now the largest audience segment, where agencies would have been a decade ago.

On stage

The creator advantage in AI search, 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. (leadership breakfast)
Jenny Penich, CRO at Influencer and Eleanor Hooker, head of community and customer marketing at Profound discuss answer engine optimization, how LLMs rely on human recommendations and why creators could link AI discovery to consumer trust.

Dhar Mann’s opening keynote, 9.30 a.m., Great Minds Stage
This is the headline Monday session. Mann will launch the $100 million creator challenge from the stage, and the event says he’ll reveal a big initiative for 2027 for the first time.

After hours

Amex Ads happy hour, 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at The Riff Raff Club (invite only)
Sigma Software AdTech Poker Night at 7pm. This is the fifth anniversary edition and its invite only.

Future is Female Awards at 7 p.m.
The anchor event of Advertising Week’s Future is Female programme, recognises women and allies in the industry. Invite only.

17620: Converse Controversy Continued.

2026-10-04T20:33:18.037-05:00

From Adweek…

Former CMO Rodney Rambo Had Nothing To Do With Converse’s Controversial Ad. He Still Got Death Threats.

Doxxed and mislabeled by AI answer engines, Rambo found help from the people in his network

By Christopher Cicchiello

The threats started pouring into former Converse CMO Rodney Rambo’s phone on a Friday morning.

He had departed the company in January, and had nothing to do with the widely-condemned ad that featured Kpop star Karina in a white skirt, holding a pair of new Chuck 70 X sneakers, and lit in a way that recalled Ku Klux Klan imagery for some social media users.

But he had seen it the night before, the day it went viral on social media.

“You should be disgusted that this ad was ever approved,” one user wrote to Rambo on LinkedIn, in one of multiple comments seen by ADWEEK.

(Continued here.)

17619: WFA, WPP, WTF.

2026-10-03T09:13:08.773-05:00

More About Advertising spotlighted a World Federation of Advertisers report showing the use of labor-based models has significantly declined over the past 15 years, while outcome-based remuneration continues to dramatically rise.

In short, WPP is not doing anything innovative with payment schemes; rather, the single White operating company has been slow in adapting to industry reality.

The global flaming dumpster is an outdated outhouse.

More clients move to payment by results – WFA

A new report by the World Federation of Advertisers and Agency Mania Solutions reveals that the use of labour-based models has fallen dramatically over the last 15 years dropping from 54% in 2011 to 17% today, with a significant drop from 33% in 2022 when the research was last carried out. Over the last decade and a half, fixed-fee/output models have risen from 20% to 35% and labour-plus-performance models have more than doubled, from 9% to 23%.

Performance-based fees show the strongest momentum, with 58% expecting increased use, followed by value-based models at 43% and fixed-fee or output-based approaches at 36%. By contrast, 42% anticipate further reducing labour-plus-performance arrangements, while commission models also face more contraction than growth.

How Brands Define, Scope and Reward Agency Work also predicts that AI will accelerate this process, given that the technology allows agencies to do more, faster. Brands, however, are still catching up, with only 20% already evolving their commercial models in response to AI, although 61% intend to.

The findings are based on responses of 69 different multinational companies, representing 6 different industry sectors and a collective global marketing spend of $147 billion. Most (71%) respondents were in a global marketing procurement role.

“Clients ultimately care about the quality, impact and performance of the work – not how many people or hours were required to produce it. AI is accelerating this transition by enabling agencies to complete many activities faster, making time an increasingly weak proxy for value,” says Laura Forcetti, Director of Global Marketing, Sourcing and Director Marketing Services, Asia Pacific at WFA. “The growth of hybrid approaches also shows that no single model suits every discipline or assignment. The future of agency compensation is not paying for effort, it is rewarding valuable work, delivered effectively.”

17618: On WPP Leadership—An Oxymoron.

2026-10-02T15:47:52.235-05:00

MediaPost reported VML Global CEO-WPP Creative CEO Jon Cook is taking a walk toward an undisclosed destination, handing the baton to another VML veteran White man.

So, after orchestrating the epic erasure of iconic White advertising agency brands—and eliminating thousands of jobs—Cook is bailing out of the global flaming dumpster, undoubtedly with a golden parachute.

Cook is scheduled to remain in his leadership roles until March 2027.

In contrast, WPP drones don’t enjoy the privileged luxury of such advance notice—and their exits only include golden showers.

VML Global CEO Jon Cook Set To Depart As Campbell Prepares To Succeed Him

By Steve McClellan

Jon Cook, Global CEO of VML and CEO of WPP Creative, is leaving WPP to pursue the next chapter of his career, the holding company announced this morning. Cook will remain in his leadership roles through March 2027. He was a co-founder of VML in the 1990’s.

Another VML veteran, Eric Campbell, currently CEO of VML and WPP Creative in North America, has been named to succeed Cook as Global CEO of the agency, while continuing as CEO of WPP Creative North America.

Cook has spent three decades helping guide and shape VML from an emerging digital agency in Kansas City into one of WPP’s largest creative networks. In 2024, he led the effort to combine what was then VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson, bringing together brand experience, customer experience, commerce, data and enterprise technology across more than 55 markets.

In February 2026, Cook took on the additional responsibility of CEO of WPP Creative when that unit was created as part of WPP CEO Cindy Rose’s efforts to return the company to growth. WPP Creative includes VML, Ogilvy, Grey, Burson, AKQA, Landor and Design Bridge & Partners.

Rose stated: “Jon’s contribution to VML, WPP and our entire industry has been extraordinary. He is an exceptional builder – of enduring client partnerships, world-class agencies and a culture built on generosity, optimism and genuine care for people.”

Added Cook: “This has been one of the hardest decisions I have ever made in my life. But after three decades of pouring everything I have into this agency and all of WPP, it is time to build something new.”

Campbell has been with VML for more than 25 years and has held central leadership roles, including President of VML, Global President of VMLY&R, Global Chief Client Officer and CEO of VML North America.

WPP said that further details on the leadership structure at WPP Creative would be announced soon.