MultiCultClassics

17439: Getting Goofy On Disney Layoffs.

2026-04-15T00:32:00.000-05:00

Adweek reported marketing restructuring at Disney prompted layoffs confirmed via a companywide memo from the CEO.

The CEO missed a perfect opportunity to open the announcement with, “Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s out of work you’ll go.”

Disney CEO Sends Memo Confirming Layoffs

Disney is expected to lay off as many as 1,000 employees

By Bill Bradley

Following its marketing restructure, Disney is carrying out layoffs, its CEO confirmed.

Today, Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro sent a memo to employees confirming layoffs were being carried out this week, saying that impacted employees were being notified. As the company looks to streamline operations, it is expected to lay off up to 1,000 employees.

The layoffs follow Disney’s announcement in January that it was restructuring its marketing divisions under Asad Ayaz, the company’s first chief marketing and brand officer. The restructure was aimed at aligning the company’s marketing teams more closely across the business.

Beyond marketing, the company’s studios and TV businesses, ESPN, products and tech, and corporate functions will also be affected, according to reports.

“I know this is hard. Those that will be leaving us have done meaningful work here and care deeply about this company. These decisions are not a reflection of their contributions, or of the overall strength of the company,” D’Amaro said in the memo. “Rather, they reflect our continual evaluation of how to more effectively manage our resources and reinvest in our businesses.”

Despite the layoffs, D’Amaro said he remained “optimistic” about where the company is headed.

“I’m deeply grateful for all of your contributions and for the dedication, professionalism, and care you bring to your work each day. Even in challenging moments, you continue to demonstrate what makes Disney so special,” D’Amaro said.

This is the first large-scale layoff under D’Amaro. It also reflects an ongoing trend in the entertainment industry, with companies such as Sony and CBS recently announcing cuts.

See the full memo below:

Dear Fellow Employees & Cast Members,

We have experienced a great deal of change these last few years, both at the company and across our industries. Knowing firsthand how these moments can bring uncertainty, I want to be open about some difficult news that will be communicated this week.

In January, we announced our unified enterprise marketing and brand organization, designed to serve consumers in an even more connected way. Over the past several months, we have looked at ways in which we can streamline our operations in various parts of the company to ensure we deliver the world-class creativity and innovation our fans value and expect from Disney. Given the fast-moving pace of our industries, this requires us to constantly assess how to foster a more agile and technologically-enabled workforce to meet tomorrow’s needs. As a result, we will be eliminating roles in some parts of the company and have begun notifying impacted employees.

I know this is hard. Those that will be leaving us have done meaningful work here and care deeply about this company. These decisions are not a reflection of their contributions, or of the overall strength of the company. Rather, they reflect our continual evaluation of how to more effectively manage our resources and reinvest in our businesses.

Compassion and respect remain at the heart of our company. As we move forward through this transition, our priority is to support those impacted and help each person navigate what comes next with resources, guidance, and direct support.

Despite these difficult decisions, I remain optimistic about where we’re headed as a company. I’m deeply grateful for all of your contributions and for the dedication, professionalism, and care you bring to your work each day. Even in challenging moments, you continue to demonstrate what makes Disney so special.

Josh

17438: FYI WPP CTO WTF ETC.

2026-04-14T13:18:00.007-05:00

The previous post spotlighting the Adweek report on WPP’s newish Chief Transformation Officer didn’t mention an important point.

Yes, the CTO formerly worked in a similar role for The Estée Lauder Companies.

In February 2026, Advertising Age reported The Estée Lauder Companies named WPP as global White media agency.

So, it looks like WPP CEO Cindy Rose is landing new clients and poaching talent from them too.

17437: FYI WPP CPO WTF.

2026-04-14T12:59:00.004-05:00

Adweek reported WPP hired a White man as Chief People Officer, leapfrogging a White woman elevated to the same role less than a year ago, before WPP CEO Cindy Rose arrived.

The latest appointment underscores how the White holding company—er, White single operating company—is a flaming dumpster.

For starters, Rose once acknowledged constant corporate change can adversely affect employee morale and create a sense of burnout. Yet she is igniting matters by reshuffling the role explicitly intended to address such concerns…?!

Additionally, Rose admitted a key charge involved identifying and eliminating redundancies throughout the organization. Yet she has literally created a redundancy by hiring a new CPO and retaining the semi-new CPO.

Also, the CPO appointed in 2025 has extensive experience, including formerly serving as CPO for WPP Media and Global Chief Talent Officer for Ogilvy. So, it looks like Rose is actively replacing legacy WPP executives with outsiders—which seems to display old-school house cleaning arrogance.

Finally, filling the CPO position with a White man appears to confirm DEIBA+ is officially dead at WPP—and Adland.

PS, the new CPO previously worked at Lego, which should come in handy since he must now assemble something from many disparate pieces.

WPP Hires Ex-Burberry and Lego Exec Mark Taylor as Chief People Officer

Marie-Claire Barker will move into a performance and culture-focused role

By Rebecca Stewart

WPP has tapped Mark Taylor as its new chief people officer (CPO), ADWEEK has learned.

The exec was most recently chief people advisor at Lego, where he worked from 2017 until 2024 before becoming an independent people consultant to brands.

In an internal memo viewed by ADWEEK, WPP chief executive (CEO) Cindy Rose said Taylor would help WPP build the talent strategy and capabilities to deliver on its three-year “Elevate 28” turnaround plan.

“[Mark] has deep expertise in enterprise-wide transformation and understands how to drive the cultural shifts required to win,” Rose wrote to employees.

He will sit on WPP’s executive committee, bringing with him decades of experience working in the pharmaceutical, CPG, retail, and digital entertainment sectors. He was the CPO at British fashion giant Burberry for nine years and steered the people division of Candy Crush maker King from 2015 to 2017, before joining Lego.

As part of his appointment, Marie-Claire Barker, who took on the CPO remit for WPP in May 2025 before Rose joined, will now report into Taylor in a more specialist role as CPO, performance and culture.

“In this role, she will focus on shaping our evolving culture, elevating our employee experience, and embedding the high-performance mindset that winning teams embrace,” said Rose in her memo.

She added: “This powerful leadership combination gives me incredible confidence in our ability to modernize our People function at pace and make WPP the best place to build a career in our industry.”

At the time of writing, WPP did not respond to ADWEEK’s request for comment on the reshuffle.

Another brand-side hire from WPP

Taylor’s hire marks the second big leadership announcement from former Microsoft exec Rose in the space of a week.

On April 10, the business revealed that Anne-Isabelle Choueiri would be joining from The Estée Lauder Companies as chief transformation officer (CTO).

Both appointments come as WPP orchestrates a turnaround strategy designed to return it to growth following an 8.1% year-on-year revenue decline in Q4.

The reset plan includes a commitment to deliver annual cost savings of $676 million (£500 million), and intends to stabilize WPP in 2026, build momentum in 2027, and return it to growth from 2028 onwards.

Having joined just as WPP’s share price hit a 16-year low in September 2025, Rose has already started gaining some new business momentum.

Since her arrival, wins have included Jaguar Land Rover, The Estée Lauder Cos., SC Johnson, and Kenvue. In Q1 2026, WPP topped JP Morgan’s new business rankings, pulling in an estimated $820 million in deals, followed by Publicis’ at $700m.

17436: FYI WPP CTO WTF.

2026-04-13T00:16:00.003-05:00

Adweek reported WPP hired a Chief Transformation Officer: someone with a somewhat vague ambition to do something to somehow actualize Eviscerate28 someday, presumably by sometime in 2028.

WPP couldn’t get its story straight, claiming the role was new, even though a former WPP executive held the title. Plus, ex-WPP CEO Mark Read once declared the White holding company would become a “creative transformation” enterprise.

At WPP, transformation is a buzzword typically preceding transition in the form of mass layoffs.

At this point, it’s hard to distinguish Autobots from Decepticons in the corporate drama. Optimus Prime would concede defeat if faced with WPP’s transformers saga.

Wonder if McKinsey & Company recommended hiring a CTO in the recent strategic review, as the consultancy has defined the fuzzy function.

The new executive previously worked at Estée Lauder, which should come in handy since she must now put lipstick on a pig.

WPP Taps Estée Lauder’s Anne-Isabelle Choueiri as Chief Transformation Officer

She’ll be central to the group’s three-year turnaround plan

By Rebecca Stewart

WPP has hired Anne-Isabelle Choueiri from The Estée Lauder Companies as chief transformation officer to help reset the business as it seeks to return to growth by 2028.

Based in New York and reporting to CEO Cindy Rose, Choueiri will be tasked with designing, implementing, and embedding the operations to execute WPP’s “Elevate28″ three-year turnaround plan. The advertising network announced its turnaround strategy in February, after it posted an 8.1% year-on-year revenue decline.

In a press release, WPP said Choueiri will lead efforts to make WPP more innovative, efficient, and better connected for clients.

She will sit on the executive committee, and key parts of her role will include baking AI and tech into WPP’s day-to-day processes, as well as working with its people team to bring staff along with the changes.

Choueiri has spent the last six years working at Estée Lauder’s parent group, most recently as SVP of transformation. While there, she shaped the beauty giant’s operating model and its marketing, data, and analytics capabilities. She also led its AI strategy.

Previously, Choueiri held leadership roles at consultancies including Accenture, Bain’s Masaï, and Kearney.

WPP described the transformation chief role as newly created. However, holdco veteran Lindsay Pattison previously held the position in 2017, subsequently becoming chief client and chief people officer, before departing in 2025.

‘Bold, lasting change’

Rose said delivering on “Elevate28” would mean transforming how WPP operates and shows up for clients, adding that Choueiri was “exactly the leader [WPP] needs to drive bold, lasting change.”

She has already started transforming the business, having joined just as its share price hit a 16-year low in September 2025. Her reset plan has been designed to stabilize the business in 2026, build momentum in 2027, and return it to growth from 2028 onwards.

To achieve this, WPP is now oriented around four units: WPP Media, WPP Creative, WPP Production, and WPP Enterprise Solutions, across four key regions: North America, Latin America, EMEA, and APAC. This new setup is underpinned by its proprietary AI platform, WPP Open.

When she announced the plan two months ago, Rose said the sweeping restructure would deliver annual cost savings of $676 million (£500 million) and was informed by six months of “rigorous analysis” and conversations with WPP’s clients, which include Coca-Cola, Unilever, Nestle, and Ford. The holdco brought on McKinsey to lead a strategic review in November.

At the time, the CEO offered little detail on what specific cuts or asset sales would deliver this target.

While Rose declined to go into specifics about potential further layoffs, she stated that WPP would consolidate leadership at “global, regional, and market levels” and remove duplicate roles across its creative agencies. She also said the group would de-duplicate functions across its finance and people teams over the next three years.

In a statement on her new role, Choueiri said she was joining WPP at a “pivotal moment.”

“Lasting transformation requires the right culture and operational mindset, and I’m excited to help build an environment where innovation thrives, and our people are empowered to embrace change,” she said.

17435: On Meta & Google Platform Addiction.

2026-04-12T22:49:00.008-05:00

MediaPost published commentary on the recent court case ruling Meta and Google (YouTube) liable for platform addiction—a milestone being referred to as social media’s Big Tobacco moment.

Will further investigations uncover Menthol moments targeting Blacks?

The ‘Big Tobacco’ Moment For Social Media

By Maarten Albarda, Featured Contributor

Be honest, how many times have you discussed “dwell time” and “session frequency” with your agency or marketing team? We’d look at a chart showing a user spiraling down a three-hour rabbit hole of auto-playing videos and infinite scrolls and think the targeting was super-efficient.

But this week, a jury in Los Angeles just looked at those same charts and called them something else: a defective product.

For the first time ever, a U.S. jury has found Meta and Google (YouTube) liable for platform addiction. Hot on the heels of that moment, a New Mexico jury slapped Meta with a $375 million verdict over child safety and misleading “safety” claims.

This isn’t just another “Big Tech is mean” news cycle. Many have called this the Big Tobacco moment for the social media industry. And if you’re a CMO, your media plan may just have become a potential legal and ethical liability.

For years, platforms hid behind a legal framework called Section 230, a “shield” that says they aren’t responsible for what people post. But these recent rulings did something different: They ignored the content and went after the conduct.

The courtroom arguments weren’t about a specific bad video or objectionable meme. It was about the design of the platform. The infinite scroll? That’s not a feature; it’s a hook. The aggressive autoplay? That’s a dopamine trap. The court ruled that these platforms are designed to be addictive by nature—and that the companies knew the harm they were causing.

For decades, and by the platform’s own guidance, they claimed to be neutral utilities. We assumed if our “brand safety” filters kept our pre-roll ads away from extremist content or the “wrong” target audience, we were the good guys.

But here’s how these verdicts have reframed the advertisers’ position: We’ve been funding the R&D of addiction. And with that, are advertisers therefore complicit?

Let’s look at this through the lens of your 2026/27 strategy. If Meta and Google are forced to dismantle the very features that drive their “efficiency” (if they have to kill the infinite scroll or opt everyone out of algorithmic “hooks”) your reach is going to diminish.

Your “cost per minute” is going to skyrocket, because those minutes will suddenly become much harder to manufacture. And it will be much harder to identify and single out specific groups of users, based on their interest or behaviors.

The “efficiency” we’ve been bragging about to our boards was built on a foundation that a jury just declared negligent. That’s a structural collapse of the very medium.

So what should you do? Well, you don’t need to panic and delete your accounts today (there will be appeals), but you do need to stop being a passive advertiser.

Ask your media agency for a breakdown of how much of your budget is going toward “forced” or “hook-based” engagement versus intentional, lean-forward viewing. If your ROI is entirely dependent on a user being “trapped” in a feed, you’re in need of a redo.

Traditional brand safety is about adjacency: What am I next to? Start asking if the platforms you support are legally compliant with these new standards of design safety.

And if the largest part of your budget is in the duopoly, you’re overleveraged in a damaged model. Move toward environments where the user is by choice, not by “loop.”

As it turns out, the algorithm might just be a legal liability.

17434: The #1 And #2 Reasons To Hate Huggies Pull-Ups Campaign.

2026-04-11T00:17:00.005-05:00

Huggies Pull-Ups campaign features animated pee and pooh critters…?

The responsible creative team should receive golden showers before being shat on.

17433: FYI Omnicom IBM WTF.

2026-04-10T12:52:00.004-05:00

Advertising Age reported Omnicom offset its Acura creative business loss by landing the IBM global media account.

Given the Acura account was creative, any fired drones are unlikely to benefit from the IBM media acquisition.

Then again, IBM is conducting a creative review and prefers to consolidate its marketing partners roster. And incumbent White advertising agency Ogilvy is declining to defend its 32-year relationship. So, Omnicom could eventually pick up IBM creative duties too.

No IBM technology exists to compute, coordinate, and clarify the Corporate Cultural Collusion, conspiring, and chaos ahead.

Omnicom wins IBM’s global media account

By Ewan Larkin and Brian Bonilla

IBM has awarded Omnicom its global media account following a review, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

Omnicom Media referred calls for comment to IBM, which could not be immediately reached. The review was handled by Michael Kassan’s 3C Ventures, which wasn’t immediately available for comment. Publicis Groupe was a finalist in the review, Ad Age has learned. The holding company did not return a request for comment.

IBM’s global media spend totaled $190 million in 2025, down sharply from $330 million in 2024, according to COMvergence estimates. Initiative, which is now part of Omnicom following its acquisition of Interpublic Group of Cos., had been handling IBM’s media business in EMEA, according to COMvergence.

WPP Media, the incumbent, declined to defend the media account. And WPP’s Ogilvy, IBM’s longtime creative partner, is not participating in the tech giant’s ongoing creative review.

“Ogilvy has made the decision not to participate in the upcoming creative RFP for IBM,” Ogilvy said in a statement shared with Ad Age in March. “We are immensely proud of our 32-year partnership, a tenure nearly unrivaled in this industry. Together, we have built one of the world’s most iconic brands through campaigns that defined eras of technological progress … We celebrate our shared history and wish the IBM team continued success.”

IBM stunned the ad world on May 24, 1994, when it summarily fired more than 40 ad agencies and consolidated its then-$500 million global ad account at Ogilvy in what at the time was the biggest-ever account switch. Ogilvy resigned the Microsoft Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp. accounts to take on IBM.

IBM’s advertising and promotional expenses totaled $1.129 billion in 2025, down from $1.173 billion in 2024, according to its annual filing. It reported advertising and promotional spending of $977 million back in 1994; that figure included spending beyond the advertising account that landed at Ogilvy.

IBM adds to a run of media wins at Omnicom that also includes On and Delta Air Lines—retained after the holding company deployed a bespoke team to handle the account, as first reported by Ad Age’s Agency Review Tracker—and Raymour & Flanigan. It also recently lost the U.S. media account for SC Johnson to WPP, and its business with CVS Health, Bristol Myers Squibb and Gilead Sciences is facing review.

17432: On Automobiles & Autocracies In Adland.

2026-04-09T13:42:00.002-05:00

The previous post on Acura racing out of the Omnicom lot underscored how Adland is a car wreck—and people working in the field regularly become crash victims.

Surely the Omnicom Overlords—and co-conspirators from the former IPG—identified conflicts that would result from the acquisition.

In this AI era, the collateral damage—in the form of lost livelihoods—must have been defined and accepted in advance. Right down to employee name, location, and demographics.

Managers were unlikely alerted, as they’d probably be casualties in the impending fiery-firing pileup.

For “leaders” like Omnicom Chairman-CEO-Pioneer of Divestiture John Wren, AI stands for Autocratic Indifference.

17431: How Omnicom Lost Its Car Keys To Acura.

2026-04-09T10:42:00.004-05:00

Advertising Age spotlighted the latest escapade at Omnicom involving collateral damage from the acquisition of IPG, whereby the Acura creative account drove away from Omnicom and parked at independent White advertising agency RPA.

MullenLowe, formerly within the former IPG, had serviced Acura since 2013. The conflict pileup began when MullenLowe was absorbed by TBWA, the latter being a longtime partner of Nissan.

Omnicom sought to remedy matters via Corporate Cultural Collusion, offering other White advertising agencies like Deutsch. Acura wound up accelerating toward RPA, which has worked on parent brand Honda since 1987, and had already been handling Acura media duties since 2017.

Ad Age made no mention of the Omnicom drones who suddenly find themselves without a ride and may be forced to seek employment as Uber drivers.

How Omnicom tried—and failed—to keep hold of the Acura creative account

By Ewan Larkin

American Honda Motor Co. has moved Acura’s creative business to RPA, a longtime agency for the Honda brand and its media partner for both Honda and Acura, without a formal review.

The shift came after Omnicom couldn’t figure out where to park Acura within its expanded creative agency lineup. MullenLowe, which was part of Interpublic Group of Cos., had held the Acura creative account since 2013. After Omnicom acquired IPG in November, the holding company ran into an issue with MullenLowe’s creative relationship with the Honda-owned car brand.

Omnicom couldn’t place the Acura business with TBWA, which absorbed MullenLowe in the deal, because of that agency’s relationship with Nissan, which presented a conflict, according to people familiar with the matter. TBWA\Chiat\Day has worked with Nissan since it won the creative account in 1987, and that relationship has evolved into Nissan United, Omnicom’s bespoke creative and media team for the brand.

The situation follows the collapse of merger talks between Honda and Nissan in February 2025.

Instead, Omnicom proposed placing the account under IPG creative agency Deutsch, which has experience in the automotive sector from its time on the Volkswagen U.S. creative account, according to people close to the situation.

American Honda confirmed it had moved the Acura creative account to RPA, but pushed back on the idea that the shift stemmed from Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG.

“American Honda made a strategic decision to consolidate creative work for both the Honda and Acura brands within a single agency to better align with business objectives,” American Honda said in a statement to Ad Age. “Effective April 1, 2026, creative work will be led by our longstanding agency partner, RPA—which is already managing media buying for both brands.”

Asked about potential conflicts with Nissan and Omnicom’s plan to place the business with Deutsch, American Honda stated: “We would ask that you talk to Omnicom about its internal strategies.”

The auto company also thanked MullenLowe for its tenure: “We extend our sincere appreciation to the entire team at MullenLowe for 12 years of creative partnership and valuable contributions to the success of the Acura brand.”

The shift means Omnicom will move forward without an account MullenLowe had held since 2013, when Honda split its agency roster, keeping RPA on Honda creative but moving Acura creative to MullenLowe and media for both brands to MediaVest (now Spark Foundry). RPA took back media duties for both brands in 2017.

Omnicom, Nissan and RPA declined to comment on the account move. Deutsch deferred calls to comment to Honda.

Acura spent $128 million on U.S. measured media in 2025, down from $152 million in 2024, according to MediaRadar. The brand recently reported its best first-quarter performance in four years, with deliveries rising 5.2%.

Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG, which closed in November, has necessitated some reshuffling of accounts. For instance, McCann, not FCB (which has been folded into BBDO), is now leading the Kimberly-Clark Co. business.

Marketers don’t seem to be as concerned about conflicts these days—Omnicom itself works with a spate of automotive brands—but the Acura account move serves as a reminder that sensitivities still exist.

“Conflict is an ongoing challenge for clients and agencies,” said Greg Paull, president of global growth for consultancy Mediasense, adding that as holding companies have leaned harder into integrated services, managing those conflicts has only gotten harder.

When Omnicom announced its plan to acquire IPG, Chairman and CEO John Wren downplayed conflict concerns. “I’m not aware or threatened by any conflict as a result of us announcing that we’re joining forces,” he said on a December 2024 call with investors. He went on to acknowledge that some clients may ultimately move their business elsewhere because of the deal, which created the world’s largest agency company by revenue when it closed last year.

“Could it happen? Yes. Will it happen? Yes,” Wren previously said. “But I think people will be short-sighted in doing that.”

17430: Wendy’s + WPP Media = WTF.

2026-04-08T02:13:00.007-05:00

Advertising Age reported Wendy’s handed its US media business to WPP Media after a closed review featuring WPP and Omnicom.

The scenario is so messed up, it’s difficult to deliver focused commentary. Hence, here’s the bullshit excreted with random bullet points:

• A closed review between WPP and Omnicom underscores the exclusive arena created by White holding companies. How was Omnicom even a contender, given its deep ties to Mickey D’s? Perhaps Omnicom promised to erect firewalls separating legacy Omnicom and IPG enterprises. Regardless, it all shows major accounts will be divvied up between a cabal of predominately Caucasian corporations.

• Wendy’s creative business has been handled for over 14 years by VML, a White advertising agency within the WPP Creative confederacy. The client claims the media assignment simplifies marketing efforts via an integrated model. On the flipside, Wendy’s admits sales suck and brand performance has steadily declined in recent years. In most cases, such results would rightly prompt a full account review. Yet WPP was rewarded for incompetence with added Wendy’s business.

• Ad Age positioned the win as evidence of WPP CEO Cindy Rose’s direct involvement on pitches. Okay, except as detailed above, this scheme really wasn’t a pitch. Additionally, WPP Media was invented by ex-WPP CEO Mark Read. So, it appears Rose is simply riding Read’s coattails, which were torn, tattered, and disintegrating rags.

• Wendy’s US CMO has been with the fast feeder for nearly 15 years; however, she was elevated to the role only three years ago. Most of her former professional personas involved serving as a financial analyst. Ad Age previously stated WPP victories under Rose leveraged low-balling maneuvers and price-cutting incentives. Need an explanation for Wendy’s decision to hire WPP Media? Do the math.

• In the end, it looks like Wendy’s ultimately chose the least stinky pile of dung.

Wendy’s is adding media to WPP’s remit—behind the decision

By Jon Springer and Ewan Larkin

Wendy’s has awarded its U.S. media business to WPP Media in a move it says will accelerate an ongoing turnaround and build on its longtime creative relationship with WPP’s VML.

The restaurant chain had long worked with Publicis Groupe’s Spark Foundry. That agency declined an invitation to defend and declined to comment. WPP and Omnicom participated in the closed review, said Lindsay Radkoski, Wendy’s U.S. chief marketing officer.

Wendy’s spent $319 million on measured media in 2025, down from $520 million in 2024, according to MediaRadar.

The shift comes as Wendy’s looks to reverse disappointing results, including U.S. same-restaurant sales that fell 5.2% last year, including an 11.3% plunge in the fourth quarter. To that end, the brand is rethinking how its marketing operates. It is moving away from siloed creative and media teams toward a more integrated model designed to speed up execution, reduce inefficiencies and better connect campaigns to sales, Radkoski said.

“Our business performance has not been where we want it to be. It’s not where the category’s been,” Radkoski said. She added that the review also reflects broader changes in how brands connect with consumers. “I really believe that the days are gone of the historical creative and media silos,” she said.

The brand and media agency are already cooperating in ways that are faster and more seamless than before. During this year’s March Madness college basketball tournament, Wendy’s was signing athletes to NIL deals in near real time as standout plays unfolded, turning them into social advocates for the brand. The brand is a longtime March Madness sponsor.

“In the past, who signs the influencer [the media agency or creative agency] led to some duplication and not being as efficient in the work as we need to be,” Radkoski said.

Tactics like this will help Wendy’s respond faster and produce more in-the-moment content that will change the way its social accounts feel, Radkoski said. The brand also plans to lean more into product-focused marketing and ongoing campaign storytelling.

Wendy’s longstanding creative relationship with VML

Although creative agencies are often in the crosshairs when brands attempt a turnaround, VML, Wendy’s creative partner of 14 years, isn’t going anywhere.

“We’re happy with that partnership,” Radkoski said. “Like any relationship, you have to have big conversations about how’s the team, how’s the business, how’s the talent, how’s our operating model, what do we need to adjust … We’re in a really healthy rhythm with the VML team.”

Bringing creative and media into the same ecosystem will help Wendy’s “build around VML,” Radkoski added.

WPP pitched a model in which Wendy’s retains control of its data through a private network, rather than relying on agency-owned data platforms, said Brian Lesser, CEO of WPP Media. The multiyear deal includes an outcomes-based component, linking a portion of WPP’s compensation to business results, he added.

Wendy’s is the second largest U.S. burger chain by sales but remains well behind McDonald’s and has struggled in recent years. Its CEO, Kirk Tanner, departed in July after just 18 months on the job to take the CEO job at Hershey Co. Ken Cook, Wendy’s chief financial officer, has served as interim CEO since.

In October, Wendy’s launched a comprehensive turnaround program called “Project Fresh” aimed at modernizing how consumers experience the brand. As part of that program it retained Creed UnCo, a consultancy led by former Taco Bell CEO Greg Creed, to sharpen how the brand targets customers.

Wendy’s marks another major media win for WPP under new CEO Cindy Rose, who took the reins Sept. 1. WPP has been battling declining revenue and a string of client losses as it works through a multiyear turnaround plan. But the company has recently shown signs of life in the pitch room, notching assignments with Jaguar Land Rover, The Estée Lauder Cos., SC Johnson, the U.K. government and Henkel.

Key to this momentum, as Ad Age previously reported, has been Rose’s increased presence in reviews, as well as a newfound sense of humility and selectivity. WPP still has a ways to go to right the ship, but a win with Wendy’s in the U.S.—where marketing consultants have said the agency group’s perception hasn’t fully recovered following years of internal reorganizations—is the kind of proof point it needs to start winning back advertiser confidence.

17429: SMH—American Crew Cuts Gray.

2026-04-07T16:02:00.000-05:00

MediaPost spotlighted a new American Crew campaign for its Undetectable hair color product utilizing the tagline: Fly Under The Graydar.

Gray shaming is ageist, no?

This concept apparently flew under—or over—the cultural competence radar, going undetected by the responsible creative team.

Gray Ban: American Crew ‘Flys Under The Graydar’

By Fern Siegel

American Crew wants to eliminate gray hair.

That’s the premise behind its Undetectable, a product promoted with “Fly Under the Graydar” campaign, produced in-house.

The campaign rolls out across digital, social and influencer channels this month. Additional creative is planned throughout the year.

The company is a big proponent of men’s grooming looking effortless. Because gray hair is easy to spot, the creative posits believable color as an essential standard, even as it pinpoints all the signs of obvious dye jobs.

Designed to blend seamlessly with existing grays, Undetectable hair color targets gray hairs and blends them with men’s natural hair color in five minutes.

Johnny Kazlausky, global marketing manager of American Crew, told Out To Launch: “Graydar was built on one simple truth — men don’t mind coloring their hair, they mind it being obvious. That tension has held the category back for years. So instead of focusing on coverage, we flipped the idea entirely. We created it as a cultural wink — this imagined radar for bad dye jobs — that everyone instinctively understands. In our world, the win isn’t being noticed, it’s flying under the Graydar.”

Undetectable Hair Color is available on Amazon Target and most major retailers. It’s also distributed in more than 30,000 salons, barbershops and authorized sellers in 50 countries.

17428: Celebrating Easter Monday.

2026-04-06T20:25:00.002-05:00

From Toronto, Canada, a vintage advertisement celebrating Easter at Aunt Jemima’s Kitchen.

17427: Yo, Dawg.

2026-04-05T14:25:00.006-05:00

Does Simparica Trio think dogs love hip hop too?

17426: Easter Campaign Created By Bad Eggs…?

2026-04-04T17:53:00.006-05:00

This Climate Basecamp campaign from M+C Saatchi Group UK is explained as follows:

Climate Basecamp, the campaigning organisation co-founded by Professor Gail Whiteman, Rainn Wilson, Steve Walls and Chuck Tatham, has launched ‘The Taste of Climate Change’, a new Easter campaign created with M+C Saatchi Group UK that uses a chocolate egg to bring the impact of climate change closer to home.

Timed to coincide with Easter, the campaign reimagines one of the season’s most familiar products to highlight how climate change is already affecting everyday foods people love, focusing on chocolate as a clear and accessible example. It forms part of Climate Basecamp’s broader ‘Save the Flavors’ narrative, which was piloted in the US by Climate Basecamp in 2023, highlighting how the foods and tastes people enjoy today are at risk as climate conditions continue to change.

The campaign is designed to raise awareness among the “moveable middle” — people who are aware of climate change but not actively engaged with it — using a tone that is accessible and engaging rather than alarmist. It aims to spark curiosity and conversation, encouraging audiences to reconsider the everyday impact of climate change and prompting light-touch actions such as sharing content and discussing the issue.

The push is inspired by the insight that many people have noticed changes in chocolate, from rising prices to shifts in size and taste, but few connect this to the impact of climate change on cocoa production.

To bring this to life, the campaign centres on a deliberately unpleasant chocolate Easter egg designed to represent the factors damaging cocoa production and the climate more widely. The egg is fully edible but intentionally tastes of petrol, acting as a representation of what’s ruining chocolate: climate change.

The idea uses humour and contrast to deliver its message, subverting expectations by turning something typically associated with enjoyment into an uncomfortable experience. Influencers and media are invited to taste the chocolate on camera, showing real-time reactions and discovering for themselves how climate change is driving chocolate’s current decline.

This approach taps into a familiar social content format, creating a highly visual, reaction-led campaign designed to work across social platforms and broadcast PR. The experience culminates in a simple message: if we don’t collectively act on climate change, we’re likely to continue to see chocolate get more expensive, smaller and less tasty, or even start to disappear completely.

The campaign is running in the UK across influencer activity and earned media, with content captured and shared over the Easter period.

Remember when competent creatives recognized if a big idea couldn’t be presented in a sentence or two, it probably wasn’t a big idea?

The Climate Crunch concept leaves a bad taste in everybody’s mouth.

17425: TGIF—Good Friday Edition.

2026-04-03T11:28:00.000-05:00

17424: Delayed WTF 67—Holding Company Of The Year Award Is Totally BS.

2026-04-02T17:19:00.000-05:00

MultiCultClassics is often occupied with real work. As a result, a handful of events occur without the expected blog commentary. This limited series—Delayed WTF—seeks to make belated amends for the absence of malice.

A previous post noted WPP was named White Holding Company of the Year at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2025, receiving the title for the second consecutive year.

As noted in another previous post, winning the award is based on a point system adding up the number of trophies and shortlisted entries nabbed by corporations—meaning the top White holding companies dominate an exclusive competitive field by virtue of sheer volume.

The honor poses questions in 2026, underscoring the absolute stupidity of the trophy.

If WPP scores a threepeat, will the White holding company decline to accept? After all, WPP CEO Cindy Rose declared the enterprise is no longer a holding company, but rather, a single operating company.

If IPG wins, will it be disqualified since the company no longer exists?

If Omnicom wins, will it be asterisked if the victory is a result of acquiring IPG?

If Dentsu wins, will Jerry Della Femina and President Donald J. Trump make racist jokes?

17423: WPP Open Takes Control In Groundbreaking Style.

2026-04-01T02:21:00.004-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 1, 2026

WPP CEO Cindy Rose replaced by WPP Open

Sea Containers, 18 Upper Ground, London, UK -- WPP CEO Cindy Rose relinquished her leadership role to WPP Open, the White single operating company’s proprietary AI platform.

Last month, Rose declared, “There’s duplication that we’re going to eliminate. There’s simplification within the organizational structure that we’re going to address.”

The WPP Board and Executive Committee realized the goal could be achieved by replacing Rose with WPP Open, prompting the quick, decisive, and surprising move.

A WPP Board member, speaking on condition of anonymity, remarked, “Cindy did such a great job promoting the capabilities of WPP Open, she talked herself out of a job. Our AI platform can clearly execute the CEO responsibilities with greater efficiency and effectiveness. And it won’t cost $19.1 million.”

So, the first woman to lead a major advertising holding company will be succeeded by the first AI platform to lead a major advertising single operating company.

“Yeah, we waited until April to avoid making the announcement during Women’s History Month,” admitted the anonymous WPP Board member.

WPP Open already renamed Elevate28 to Elevate26, predicting all necessary turnaround actions can be accomplished this year.

17422: Pickpocketing John Wren’s Wallet.

2026-04-01T00:32:00.005-05:00

Mediapsssst reported Omnicom Chairman and CEO—and Pioneer of Divestiture—John Wren pocketed $69,865,846.00 in total compensation for 2025.

To put the figure in perspective, Wren’s jackpot is roughly $50.7 million more than the incentivized loot WPP CEO Cindy Rose could collect in 2026.

Additionally, the amount is roughly $69.9 million more than the average salaries of thousands of Omnicom and former IPG drones who lost their jobs after the mega-acquisition.

Finally, Pioneer of Diversity Wren received a gazillion dollars more than the Omnicom diversity budget.

John Wren’s Big Payday

By Richard Whitman, Columnist

Omnicom CEO John Wren received a very big pay raise in 2025 with total compensation of $69,865,846.00. That’s more than triple his total pay package for the prior year, according to the company’s recently issued 2026 proxy statement.

Most of his 2025 pay came in the form of option awards valued at nearly $69.3 million.

The big pay bump is part of what the company called a “redesigned” compensation package for Wren that extends through 2028 when Wren is expected to step down from the CEO post after 30 years while remaining executive chairman.

From 2026 through 2028 Wren will receive a $1 annual salary and $169,180.00 in total compensation.

According to the proxy statement “The Compensation Committee believes that the CEO’s compensation structure should be based on strategic context, and given the strategic transformation that the Company is undergoing, the Compensation Committee believed that a special grant of stock options in lieu of base salary and all other incentive compensation through the end of fiscal year 2028 was the most appropriate form of compensation for Mr. Wren to drive long-term shareholder value creation.”

With the completion of the IPG acquisition, Wren’s to do list includes overseeing the full integration of the combination and its continuing transformation in what the company called the “new era of marketing and sales.” He’ll also work closely with the board in identifying a CEO successor.

The document also lists the next three highest compensated executives at the company last year including Chief Operating Officer Daryl Simm ($10 million), CFO Phil Angelastro ($8.95 million) and General Counsel Louis Januzzi ($2.2 million).

17421: On The WPP New Business Approach.

2026-03-31T12:37:00.010-05:00

Advertising Age published a fluff piece hyping the WPP new business scheme under CEO Cindy Rose.

Okay, except WPP declined to comment for the content.

And most of the insider information came from anonymous consultants, which translates to worthless opinion, clueless commentary, and useless hearsay.

In short, the content is time-wasting bullshit.

According to Ad Age, the Roserrection—in terms of new business acquisition—features heavy involvement from Rose.

Hey, Rose must earn the potential $19.1 million via the pseudo outcomes-based payment plan applied to her salary.

Rose reportedly appears at pitches live and/or by pre-recorded videos.

Wonder if the videos are AI-generated messages, which would fortify the White holding company’s—er, White single operating company’s—alleged expertise with such technology. Or underscore how AI could easily replace the average CEO.

Rose already stated layoffs are imminent. So, is new business even a priority? Who would service newly acquired accounts?

Publicly juggling RIFs and RFPs is bad for morale. It doesn’t help that Rose is still in the probationary period too.

WPP once boasted its people “represent perhaps the most diverse example of diversity of any single organisation.”

The statement should be revised as follows:

WPP represents perhaps the most diverse example of dysfunction of any single organisation.

Inside WPP’s new business approach under Cindy Rose

By Ewan Larkin

WPP appears to be building some much-needed momentum in the pitch room, picking up a string of marquee accounts in recent months under new CEO Cindy Rose—though it still has a ways to go to fully right the ship.

The British advertising giant has notched recent wins with Jaguar Land Rover, The Estée Lauder Cos., SC Johnson, Kenvue, the U.K. government and Henkel. Some in the industry may attribute the streak to aggressive pricing terms—a familiar narrative when agencies hit a run—but the gains nonetheless offer some relief after 2025, when the company shed several high-profile accounts. WPP is now working through a broader turnaround plan to revive growth.

Early data suggests that momentum is translating into results. According to COMvergence, which tracks agency new business activity across 50 countries, WPP Media is currently the top-performing network among the top five holding groups so far this year. It has raked in roughly $1.2 billion in new client wins and $520 million in retained billings, against about $200 million in losses. The figures are provisional and subject to revision, COMvergence noted.

By comparison, Omnicom Media has posted $280 million in new client wins, $620 million in retained billings and $400 million in losses, according to COMvergence. Publicis Media has recorded $120 million in new wins, $75 million in retained billings and $25 million in losses. Publicis dominated the new business front in 2025.

WPP’s new business strategy hasn’t changed significantly in structure, according to people familiar with the matter, but it is improving in how it’s presented, led and understood by marketers. Key to this turnaround is Rose, who took the reins in September and is said to be quite present in pitches, engaging with senior client leaders.

Ad Age dives into what’s working so far. WPP declined to comment for this story.

Breaking down Cindy Rose’s involvement

The presence of a holding company CEO in a pitch is becoming increasingly meaningful, with reviews now often involving top executives on the client side. Those top-to-top conversations are taking on greater weight, and Rose, a former Microsoft executive, seems to be making the right early moves.

“She is very present,” said one marketing consultant who has encountered Rose in the pitch room, speaking on condition of anonymity. The consultant added that Rose has a different style from Publicis Groupe CEO Arthur Sadoun—without the same “big personality”—but is “empathetic and very commercial.”

The consultant likened Rose’s approach to Wendy Clark at Dentsu, pointing to a transparent and measured leadership style that resonates with clients. Rather than dominating the room, Rose is seen as engaging senior marketers and CEOs directly while giving her teams space to lead the conversation. She has formed a tight partnership with Devika Bulchandani, whom she promoted from global CEO of Ogilvy to chief operating officer of WPP in September.

That new role appears to have given Bulchandani space to roam, as she has been prominent in reviews, including on the media side, bringing a different perspective to those pitches, according to one person close to WPP. “She’s involved in all of it,” this person said of Bulchandani. “She’s a new business machine.”

Rose has also been appearing at the beginning of pitches via pre-recorded video, according to David Indo, chief client officer at media consultancy ID Comms. ID Comms supported U.K. consumer goods group Reckitt’s recent review, in which WPP Media emerged as the European media agency of record, working across 21 markets.

“She has successfully and effectively set the tone, even though she’s delivering it remotely,” Indo said of Rose. “Her involvement in pitch meetings does make a difference, and for clients to see that the new CEO of WPP is actively investing in that particular process already positions the WPP agency that is presenting in a good light.”

Indo said Rose’s involvement also marks a shift from her predecessor, Mark Read. That added CEO presence, he said, represents a “significant difference” and a “significant improvement” in how WPP shows up in reviews.

The proposition becomes clearer, and outcomes take center stage

Much of WPP’s focus in recent years has been on building out its AI platform, WPP Open, and other tech capabilities. With much of that groundwork now in place, the company is getting better at articulating how those tools inform strategy rather than define it, according to the first marketing consultant.

The holding company’s messaging is now that WPP Open “informs good strategy, as opposed to the strategy being the data and the tech,” the consultant said. “That’s quite a big distinction.”

“The proposition is getting a lot stronger,” this person added. “The narrative is probably a bit stronger because they’ve picked up a few wins—and people are reading about wins now, not exits, both on the client side and among people.”

WPP is also pushing outcomes-based pricing more often during reviews, said another marketing consultant, who noted that in one recent media pitch the company proposed putting more of its fees at risk based on performance than it had in similar pitches just a year ago. The approach is not new—independent agencies, including Known, have adopted similar models—but WPP’s stance appears to be getting more aggressive.

Rose herself is focused on articulating a high-level “win together” narrative—emphasizing shared risk and “skin in the game”—while her pricing and client leads handle the specifics, said a third marketing consultant.

“They’re more upfront about it: ‘The way we work is outcomes. We’re not selling time; we’re selling outcomes,’” said the second consultant. “They’re introducing it earlier in the process.”

The Jaguar Land Rover win, in which WPP picked up media and creative duties, is emerging as a key test case. In an investor meeting in February, WPP said it was negotiating with the client on a model that ties fees to measurable sales and outcomes rather than hours worked. Jaguar Land Rover could not be immediately reached for comment.

Not all marketers are fully sold yet, however. The second consultant said clients still want proof the model can deliver in practice, particularly given the limited number of case studies and the level of data-sharing required.

Humility and selectivity

There’s also a newfound humility to WPP in the pitch room, said Indo, who noted a shift in tone over recent months, calling it “intangible” but “extremely telling.” He attributed that change in part to Rose’s more client-focused approach.

“For many years, WPP would attend presentations and there would be a degree of arrogance they would bring into the room with them; a degree of entitlement because they’d been so successful,” Indo said. “Sometimes that translated into confidence and well-presented, well-articulated, coherent pitches. Other times, it would be jarring for the client.”

Now, in the “pitches that I have been exposed to with WPP, there is a natural humbleness they bring to the meeting room,” he continued. “I don’t mean them being timid, but there is a level-setting and a degree of humbleness that they bring into the meeting that is disarming and engaging for the client.” Several other consultants also noted this shift.

WPP is also being selective, especially as it looks to defend existing accounts, Indo said.

“They need to make sure they don’t lose business, but they also need to generate some kind of organic growth, and so they are being far more selective in the reviews they work on,” said Indo. “Their ability to cherry-pick those reviews based on their perceived ability to win is very sensible and very strategic.”

IBM serves as a good example. WPP Media declined to defend the media account, and longtime partner Ogilvy is not participating in the tech giant’s creative review, despite working with IBM for 32 years.

Room for improvement and what’s next

WPP’s recent flurry of victories doesn’t patch over the broader issues, as the company works through a turnaround that includes £500 million ($678 million) in annual cost savings by 2028, including job cuts. The third marketing consultant characterized the company’s new business progress as stabilization rather than true momentum, noting that the sheer volume of pitches currently underway makes it too early to draw firm conclusions.

WPP has reorganized around four WPP-branded divisions, recasting itself as a single, unified company in a bid to make all its services easier for marketers to access. It is too soon to tell how this revamp will pan out, but the third consultant said some clients are wary that further consolidation could dilute talent and lead to more commoditized work.

“Quite a few clients are a little cautious, especially around the horizontal consolidation—what that means from a competition and conflict point of view, and whether they will still have the best talent," this person said.

A fourth marketing consultant said WPP still has work to do in the U.S., where its perception hasn’t fully recovered following years of internal reorganizations. Clients in the region want to see more of WPP’s data and tech capabilities fully operational and delivering results, too, this person said. (Rose holds both British and American citizenship and is splitting her time between London and New York.)

And of course, WPP is up against stiff competition. Publicis has been flying high in recent years, including scooping up WPP accounts such as Coca-Cola Co.’s media duties in North America and Mars’ global media business in 2025. Following its acquisition of Interpublic Group of Cos. in November, Omnicom is now the world’s largest agency company by revenue. But despite these challenges, many consultants voiced optimism about WPP’s prospects.

Right now, “it is a two-horse race,” said a fifth industry consultant, “but you can’t count WPP out. They will catch up.”

17420: FYI FQ Beach BS.

2026-03-30T00:15:00.004-05:00

Adweek reported The Female Quotient will expand its presence at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, adding FQ Beach and Camp to the regular FQ Lounge setup.

Despite the anti-DEIBA+ vibe in Adland, it appears White women groups are not as adversely affected—in terms of indifference, disinterest, and disrespect—as racial and ethnic groups at Cannes.

Plus, White women at Cannes probably face waaaaay fewer perverted predatory perils than women of color. Or maybe not.

Expect extra Safe Zone precautions at FQ Beach and Camp.

Maybe they should change the name to FQ Beach and Bunker.

The Female Quotient Adds Beach Presence at Cannes Lions

A larger beachside venue at Hôtel Martinez will host the organization’s content, while the penthouse shifts to private gatherings

By Richard Lowe

The Female Quotient is heading to the beach for Cannes Lions 2026.

The media and advisory company announced the launch of FQ Beach and Camp on Wednesday (March 25), an expansion of its FQ Lounge set-up on the rooftop of the Hôtel Martinez.

The space, situated on the Croisette across from Hôtel Martinez, will host an outdoor stage with daily programming, brand activations, and gatherings that forward The FQ’s mission.

Meanwhile, the rooftop space will host private gatherings with industry leaders alongside a dedicated content studio for social-first storytelling.

“For over ten years, the FQ Lounge at Cannes Lions has been the destination for the conversations and connections that move business forward,” said Shelley Zalis, founder and CEO of The Female Quotient, in a statement. “Expanding to the beach allows us to build on that foundation, creating more space, more access, and more opportunity for our growing community to show up and have the conversations that drive what’s next.”

A growing community

Founded in 2015 by Zalis, The FQ has grown to a worldwide community of 7 million members across 30 industries in 100 countries. The company hosts events across the globe, including an AI summit, that draw over 50,000 attendees annually.

At Cannes Lions, FQ Beach is a natural expansion for the company. For more than ten years, the FQ Lounge has hosted business leaders on the penthouse rooftop of the Hôtel Martinez. This year, that content will move to the larger stage at FQ Beach.

“[FQ’s] expansion allows us to scale that experience, creating more opportunities for the connection, visibility, and storytelling that our community of leaders has come to expect from The FQ,” said Talia Bender Small, President of The Female Quotient, in a statement.

The FQ’s growth comes at a time when McKinsey & Company released their Women in the Workplace report that shows women receive less career support and fewer advancement opportunities in the workplace.

Cannes for kids

The FQ also announced Camp @ Cannes, in association with home improvement retailer Lowe’s, to provide programming for children with supervision from credentialed childcare providers.

“You can do it all, but not all at once, and definitely not alone,” Zalis said in a statement. “Camp @ Cannes is an experience that reflects real life, where work and family can coexist, and therefore more leaders can participate.”

Camp @ Cannes was inspired by Lowe’s revamp of MyLowe’s Rewards Kids Club, which inspires families to go on adventures together as they learn how to build via hands-on workshops and experiences. In-store workshops include building terrariums and garden baskets, while the club also offers projects that kids can do at home.

This partnership comes after Lowe’s rolled back DEI policies, but vowed to be a bigger part of its local communities by rebuilding parks, gardens, and even food pantries through a five-year, $100 million program.

“At Lowe’s, we’re always innovating to create new ways to connect with younger audiences and the next generation of homeowners,” said Jen Wilson, Lowe’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer, in a statement. “Bringing that spirit to Camp @ Cannes allows us to support today’s leaders in a more holistic way, by creating space for their families, too, and showing that building a career and building memories don’t have to be separate pursuits.”

17419: Sorrell Subscribes To Payment Scheme.

2026-03-29T01:17:00.003-05:00

Digiday reported S4 Capital CEO Sir Martin Sorrell is seeking to move clients from billable hours to subscriptions.

In recent years, White holding companies and White advertising agencies have been generating the most creative work in accounting departments, finding innovative ways to cook the books.

So, it’s no surprise Sorrell—who has always been a financial schemer—would pioneer in payment ploys.

Being a pioneer, however, has not yet made Sorrell a profiteer. He might soon concede to work for peanuts.

“It’s about change management”: Sir Martin Sorrell says the billable hour is dying, but getting clients to move in is proving harder

By Seb Joseph

Yes, outcome-based pay is en vogue. But none of it matters if agencies aren’t using AI at the scale the economics require. And that only happens if clients are willing to pay for it. Most aren’t.

S4 Capital CEO Sir Martin Sorrell said as much on his marketing group’s latest earnings call yesterday — a cold dose of realism about the hype that comes after the billable hour. For S4, the answer is subscriptions: fixed annual fees bundling senior talent with agentic workflows, brand-specific knowledge bases and quarterly software-style upgrades.

Sceptics call it the agency retainer rebranded. Believers see it as an on-ramp to a world beyond the billable hour. The truth is probably somewhere in between — at least for now. The reasons are outlined [elsewhere], but Sorrell’s own framing cuts to it.

“The far more important thing is, what is going to be the pace of AI adoption?,” he told analysts on the call. “Because the simple fact is, consumers have adopted AI faster than companies, and companies aren’t doing it because it’s not just about technology or workflow — it’s about change management. And companies find it difficult to do that.”

The ones that do are buying into subscriptions. One enterprise client signed up last year and restructured its entire agency relationship around the model. Three more are in discussions with more expected to follow since subscriptions are now baked into every new business pitch S4 runs. By year-end, it wants a quarter of its revenue running that way.

Getting there is another matter. For subscriptions to work at scale, a lot has to align: existing clients have to be willing to reopen contracts; procurement teams have to get comfortable pricing outputs rather than hours; rising inference costs have to stay absorbable within a fixed fee; and the pace of AI adoption across the broader market has to quicken. None of those things are moving as fast as S4 would like.

“I don’t think anybody in marketing procurement teams is against a change,” said Wes ter Haar, co-founder of Media.Monks and executive director at S4Capital on the call. “Everybody understands that the traditional model really isn’t sustainable in any meaningful way, but doing this at scale in a running business is not the easiest thing to do.”

There are, however, pockets of momentum. Chiefly, in automotive and financial services — sectors pushed by existential threat rather than enthusiasm. Chinese EV competition in one case, fintech disruption in the other. FMCG, arguably the most valuable category for marketing groups, is starting to stir too. And counterintuitively, the conflict in the Middle East could accelerate things further: if its reverberations push inflation higher and keep rates elevated, that macro pressure may yet do what enthusiasm alone hasn’t: force the kind of AI adoption at scale that makes the new model viable.

“It may be that that acts as a catalyst,” Sorrell said on the call. “If global growth slows, inflation rises and interest rates are stickier — which seems to be the scenario already being built in by some of the analysts and the investment banking firms — that might be the engine for increased tech adoption and AI adoption.”

Should that happen, it might finally give the agency model’s critics pause. So far, nothing has — not the workforce automation, the M&A, nor the push into agentic services.

Or as as Gartner vp analyst Jay Wilson, put it: “More advanced client-side organizations are starting to pivot to enterprise-wide platforms from the hyperscalers — and the agency AI platforms, which are basically just connectors of Salesforce and Adobe and Workfront, we don’t believe are going to be as relevant going forward.”

Which is why the subscription model’s internal economics matter as much as its commercial logic. The pitch to clients is simple: as AI improves, they get more for the same price. Fifty assets a month becomes seventy, no fee increase. But that only works if S4 can keep absorbing rising compute costs inside the fixed fee. With video models and always-on usage expanding fast, pass-through costs may eventually be unavoidable. That would mean variable pricing — the one thing procurement teams are least equipped to sign off on.

“On personalization at scale, I would say there’s more opportunity,” said Sorrell. “But on visualization and copywriting, we’re seeing compression — if you charge on time, that is compressed.”

As it stands, it’s the latter two where most AI work done at scale is happening. CMOs, despite what they say, see AI more as an efficiency play than an effectiveness one — technology to get things done faster and cheaper, not necessarily better. AI only compounds for a marketing services company like S4 if it can do all three. Without the effectiveness part — the bit where real outcomes can be pegged to results — the agency model becomes an even slipperier slope to commoditization.

How S4 got to this point is a sobering illustration. The group reported revenue of £754.8m for 2025, down 11% on a year earlier, with net revenue falling 10.8% to £673m. Nearly half that revenue historically came from big tech — but marketing spend at Amazon, Meta and Alphabet has been essentially flat since 2022, while their AI infrastructure spending has grown over 133%.

Tech clients spending more on AI and less on agencies: that’s the burning platform behind S4’s model shift, and the reason subscriptions are no longer just a commercial experiment.

17418: On The New Dentsu Mantra.

2026-03-28T01:23:00.013-05:00

MediaPost reported newly appointed Dentsu Global CEO Takeshi Sano declared, “Client-centricity is our new mantra.”

WTF was the old mantra? Egocentricity is our mantra…? Eccentricity is our mantra…?

Dentsu’s Sano: ‘Client-Centricity Is Our New Mantra’

By Steve McClellan

Over the past year, Tokyo-based ad group Dentsu had seriously considered selling its international holdings, given its inability to drive significant growth outside of its home market for several years.

But after months of discussions with potential suitors, no deals emerged.

And according to newly installed Global CEO Takeshi Sano, a top priority now is to get the foreign operations back on track “aiming for an early recovery of competitiveness and profitability.”

Sano issued his statement today, his first day on job after being appointed to the global CEO post in February. He retains his responsibilities as CEO of Dentsu Japan.

With the renewed focus on shoring up international operations, Sano also asserted that the Japan business would continue to grow “while expanding its strengths more broadly across the global organization.”

He said the company has reduced layers of management and has placed “much of our global leadership directly under the Global CEO. This allows us to gain greater clarity and faster responsiveness to the pace of business and our industry.”

“Client-centricity is our new mantra,” Sano stated.

“In particular, we will further advance two key strengths. First is agility—anticipating client needs and leading with speed and flexibility. Second is deep and advanced collaboration across capabilities—bringing together and orchestrating Dentsu’s diverse expertise to ensure true integration is a differentiating multiplier and delivering fully integrated solutions.”

Driving transformation across its businesses and culture is part of the strategy, Sano added. “In turn this will strengthen our global network in which diverse Dentsu talent can thrive across borders and areas of expertise.”

In 2025, Japan was the company’s only growth market, posting a full-year gain of 6.2%. All other regions were down including the Americas, which posted a 6.2% organic revenue decline for the year.

When it posted full-year results for last year in February, the company said the outlook for 2026 was flat to 1% growth. That includes a forecasted gain of 2% to 3% for the home market, a 2% decline in the Americas and 1% decline in both Europe-Middle East-Africa and Asia Pacific.

17417: Martin = Unretired + Retired + Tired.

2026-03-27T00:23:00.004-05:00

Advertising Age reported Kristen Cavallo unretired to retake the CEO role at Martin, succeeding her successor—Danny Robinson—who’s retiring and undertaking an art residency at La Maison de Beaumont in France.

That’s quite a dizzying game of retirement musical chairs.

Although given the current anti-DEIBA+ vibe in Adland, Cavallo won’t have to repeat her performative puffery: “We’re not diverse enough. We see it. We’re on it.”

Wonder if Joe Alexander was considered as a retiree-returnship candidate.

Kristen Cavallo returns as CEO of Martin; Danny Robinson to retire

By Brian Bonilla

In a surprise move, Kristen Cavallo is returning to Martin, recently rebranded from Martin Agency, as CEO.

She will succeed Danny Robinson in April. Robinson was appointed by Cavallo in 2024 before she retired from the ad industry. Robinson is retiring to undertake an art residency at La Maison de Beaumont in France.

Cavallo, who previously spent 20 years at Martin, had been working as the executive director at the Branch Museum of Design. She admitted she “wasn’t pining to get back in the ad industry,” but she said the decision to return was less about career ambition and more about commitment to the agency, its people and the broader creative ecosystem. Robinson framed Cavallo’s decision to return as both strategic and deeply personal. “It felt like a very selfless act,” he said. “She knew how passionate I am about this next thing … and she said yes with very little hesitation.”

“If Martin ever needs something … the answer is yes. There is no other answer, but yes,” said Cavallo.

The move comes at a pivotal time for the agency, which has had a mixed few years as it seeks to find its stride under a new holding company following Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG.

Last year, the agency lost Papa Johns and CarMax, and its Oreo and Ritz accounts are currently in review. The agency last year laid off roughly 5% of its staff and just this week it laid off another 7% of its employees, the agency confirmed.

“While decisions like these can be part of the natural cycle of the business and are not a reflection of individual value, losing colleagues is never procedural—it’s personal, and that’s what makes moments like this so difficult,” Robinson wrote in a statement regarding the layoffs.

While Robinson downplayed the idea of a sustained downturn, he acknowledged the volatility. “We lost some business last year,” Robinson said, framing it as part of the normal cycle of agency life rather than a structural issue.

“I don’t know that I can say any year in the history of any ad agency, somebody hadn’t lost business ... but momentum is fickle,” Robinson said. “I wouldn’t say we lost momentum. In fact, I would point to us coming out of the acquisition as a whole as Martin, a significant nod to our momentum.”

Robinson pointed to some recent key wins, including Hershey and Stihl. Last week, Geico’s new chief marketing officer also reaffirmed that the insurer won’t be making any agency changes, which was a question last year. “The pipeline is more full than it’s been, maybe ever at any single time,” Robinson said.

The agency also faced internal scrutiny last year when an open letter posted on Fishbowl criticized leadership following layoffs. Robinson said his initial reaction was emotional—“the first is hurt, because it hurts,” he said—but he ultimately viewed it as a sign that employees care deeply about the agency. Rather than dismiss it, he said leadership worked to understand the underlying concerns, asking, “What are the people asking for?”

Cavallo said her first 90 days will be focused less on immediate structural changes and more on listening to both employees and clients. “I’m excited to get back in and listen … to clients as well … about what we need to do, where we need to go, what we need to build,” she said, noting that she plans to prioritize business development, morale and recruiting as she re-acclimates to the agency.

The leadership shift was the result of an unexpected opportunity, said Robinson. “This wasn’t a planned thing,” he said. “This was an opportunity that happened because I got an opportunity.”

Robinson, who has spent more than four decades in advertising—including 22 years at Martin—said the decision was driven by his lifelong passion for painting. He said that he hadn’t been prepared to be accepted for the French residency as quickly as he was.

That led to conversations with Omnicom leadership and ultimately Cavallo, who Robinson described as a “long shot” but “the best option at this very time.”

She also said her return comes at an opportune time. “I feel like the ... last few years, consolidations aside, just this idea of giving away creative for free or at really low margins ... the pendulum is absolutely switching back towards craft and creativity.”

Her return to advertising comes after a period of personal and professional exploration that began with a pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago—a journey that ultimately reshaped how she thought about her next chapter.

Before setting out, she briefly considered a move into politics, even attending the Democratic National Convention on her own. “The night before I had gone to walk the Camino [ a multi-week long route in Spain], I had gone on my own dime to the DNC to see what that moment was like,” she said, describing an environment filled with “solidarity” and “excitement” and noting that “civic duty is important to me.”

But the clarity she was searching for didn’t come from Washington—it came on the road. “I knew within a week or two of walking that I did not want that as a vocation,” Cavallo said.

Cavallo is staying on at the Branch Museum in a lesser role as artistic director, but has aspirations to revisit the museum space in the future. “I found my next chapter, even if I delay it for a bit or just keep my toe in the water,” she said. “I found it. I am not going to let go of it, because it has fed my soul in ways I did not anticipate.”

So don’t expect Cavallo to use this as a stepping stone to another agency gig; she called her second return to Martin her “final chapter” in advertising.

17416: ICYMI US Army RFI BS.

2026-03-26T01:13:00.002-05:00

Advertising Age reported the US Army launched an RFI, moving in advance of an official account review process projected to start in spring 2027.

Given the anti-DEIBA+ positions of the White House and White advertising agencies, will multicrumbtual shops be denied the opportunity to participate and experience Prime Redlining?

US Army launches RFI for its $4 billion account, which is currently with Omnicom

By Brian Bonilla

The U.S. Army has begun laying the groundwork for a review of its multibillion-dollar marketing and advertising business, signaling a potential shake-up for one of the industry’s largest government accounts.

The government launched a “sources sought” and RFI on March 12, which is the first step leading up to an official review process slated to begin in late spring 2027.

The account was originally with DDB Chicago since 2018, before the agency was folded into TBWA after Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG.

The current contract is valued at up to $4 billion, which would seem to make the Army one of the agency’s largest accounts. The current contract is worth about $40 million annually in agency revenue for Omnicom, according to a person familiar with the contract, which is similar to what was reported when DDB initially won the business.

DDB’s contract included a five-year base period and “two award-term option periods,” for a total potential 10-year ordering period. It’s not known whether Omnicom is planning to defend the account. The contract is expected to conclude in 2028.

TBWA and the U.S. Army weren’t immediately available for comment.

The winning agency or agencies will be tasked with driving enlistment and retention across a broad set of audiences at a time when military recruitment has faced sustained challenges.

However, there have been recent signs of a turnaround. In January 2025, the U.S. Army had its best recruiting numbers in 15 years, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated last year. After missing its recruitment goals in 2022 and 2023 by 15,000 troops a year, the government entity revised downward its goals and has since reached or exceeded them. In 2025, the U.S. Army surpassed its 60,000 recruit target by more than 1,000 recruits.

The RFI details wanting help to target high school and college students, working professionals under 35, specialized talent such as medical and legal professionals, as well as “influencers” such as parents, family members, high school counselors and coaches. It also includes a need for messaging aimed at veterans and recruits to fill civilian workforce positions.

The RFI implies that the U.S. Army is open to a one-agency solution or multiple agency partners, which is significant, according to Mike Kapetanovic, a business development consultant at GrowthLab, that is focused on supporting advertising and marketing agencies that work in the public sector.

Kapetanovic said there have been growing conversations around government entities pushing for a multiple-agency approach, which could be beneficial for mid-size and independent agencies and less so for holding companies such as Omnicom.

“Just the notion that the Army has gone on public record through this RFI exercise, it is contemplating a decentralization of this contract, has massive implications for both the incumbent as well as the future competitive set,” he said. “[If that’s done] there’s a very good chance that that $4 billion contract quickly becomes $50 million to $1 billion contracts in which Omnicom will not retain all of it. Right there, Omnicom gets an immediate hit.”

The selected partner or partners will be expected to handle a full suite of services, including creative development, media planning and buying, production, CRM, digital and website management, public relations, events, sponsorships and advanced analytics.

The value in winning a contract like this is not only its massive size, but its stability in an increasingly project-based and roster-first industry.

MullenLowe, which has been folded into TBWA as well, continues to do work for the government’s Joint Advertising, Market Research & Studies program (JAMRS), which is focused on recruiting volunteers for all branches of the military. MullenLowe retained the account in 2023 and launched a campaign last year called “You Have a Calling, We have an Answer.”

In 2024, WPP retained its Marine Corps account, which was previously with Wunderman Thompson before it was merged into VML.

Contributing: Ewan Larkin

17415: BTW Bolloré, Bribes, Brothers, BS.

2026-03-26T00:17:00.006-05:00

MediaPost reported Vincent Bolloré will finally stand trial on political corruption charges related to allegedly bribing politicians in Africa over 15 years ago.

Bolloré is accused of delivering discounted services via Havas to two presidential contenders in Togo and Guinea—helping them win elections—in exchange for shipping port contracts.

Oddly enough, the scenario could represent a rare and unique DEIBA+ initiative for the White holding company.

No word yet if Bolloré will appoint one of his sons to make court appearances in his place.

Vincent Bolloré To Stand Trial On Political Corruption Charges

By Steve McClellan

Bolloré Group controlling shareholder Vincent Bolloré will stand trial on corruption charges related to election campaigns in Togo and Guinea from 2009 to 2011, according to Reuters which cited a statement from the French financial prosecutor’s office on Thursday.

Bolloré was formally arrested in 2018 when authorities were looking into allegations that Bolloré provided discounted communications services via Havas to two African country presidential contenders (both won) in exchange for contracts to run shipping port concessions.

While Vincent Bolloré stepped down as Chairman and CEO at Bolloré Group in 2022, he is said to remain a major influence at the firm through his control of an entity called Financière de l’Odet, the largest shareholder of the group.

His son Cyrille succeeded him as Chairman and CEO at Bolloré Group. Entertainment firm Vivendi and ad holding company Havas, which Bolloré Group has controlling stakes in, are both headed by another son, Yannick Bolloré.

Reuters reported that two other persons are co-defendants in the case, including Gilles Alix, a former board member of Vivendi, and Jean-Philippe Dorent, who is currently head of Havas International Consulting, which provides reputation management and related services.

The trial is scheduled to start in December, according to reports.

Representatives from Havas and Bolloré had not responded to requests for comment by deadline.