Have you ever planned a vacation using just TikTok to search your destination(s)? That’s more common these days than it used to be, thanks to the changing habits of consumers, who spend more time on social platforms or engaging with influencers.

According to new research coming out of Omnicom Media Group — aptly called The Future of Search — search has essentially evolved from a channel to a behavior, thanks to some of the above consumer adaptations as well as advances in AI and algorithmic application of content across the social sphere. 

Joanna O’Connell, Omnicom Media Group’s chief intelligence officer for North America, spearheaded the research but assembled a variety of team members from influencer shop Creo, cultural specialists Sparks & Honey, commerce shop Flywheel as well as design and research departments. S&H even did a Boolean query to see the latest cultural chatter on the topic. 

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Judging from the reaction to the news of Omnicom’s planned acquisition of Interpublic Group near the end of 2024, there’s a strong expectation that 2025 will see the biggest of the agency groups get bigger. Size and scale will be vital for them to compete with each other.

But getting so large means seeking out the largest multi-national marketers that need that global heft to execute their media — the P&Gs, Coca-Cola’s and General Motors of the marketing world. Together they make up a large swath of media spend. 

And that leaves a whole world of smaller and mid-sized marketers left on the sidelines of the holdco game — the “Forgotten Middle,” as one independent media agency CEO coined it — and looking for agencies that will bring them their A teams and innovative solutions.

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If you’ve worked in marketing or media in some capacity over the last 25 years, there’s a chance you’ve come across Kevin Wassong, who seemingly knows everyone in the business thanks to his long agency resumé. 

Since January, Wassong has been working with Greg McConnell, a longtime friend and fellow industry colleague with experience overseeing the Rolex business at WPP, among other roles, to develop what the pair are calling “the Bloomberg terminal for marketers,” a SaaS product called mktg.ai. 

The duo are just now rolling out mktg.ai, to the market, offering up a service that aims to be the be-all end-all service for marketers to track the vastly increased number of assets they use in their efforts — along with a simplified means of knowing what’s worked, when it worked and easy access to it all in one place. 

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What a month last week was, right? Omnicom’s proposed $30 billion stock acquisition of rival holding company Interpublic Group caught an entire industry by surprise when the news broke in a report in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, Dec. 8, throwing the entire journalism world that covers media and advertising into paroxysms of endless coverage — despite the fact that this proposed mega-deal isn’t expected to close till Fall 2025. 

So today’s briefing is an attempt to take the long view, both of what’s happened, and what may yet happen, positive or negative. What seems clear from the 10,000-foot point of view is that there are two general schools of thought around the acquisition, which would vault Omnicom to the No. 1 position among the holdcos, from its current perch at No. 3. 

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That’s one hell of a way for the agency holding companies to end the year.

Just as everyone was looking to slow down and take a holiday-induced break before what will be a turbulent 2025, along comes Omnicom with a proposed stock-driven acquisition of Interpublic Group. The two CEOs — Omnicom’s John Wren and IPG’s Philippe Krakowsky — shared on their conference call Monday morning to announce the deal that they have been discussing this combination for the better part of a year.

Suffice it to say that, should the deal clear regulatory and shareholder approvals — (those CEOs are hoping it will clear in the second half of 2025) — the combined $30 billion revenue will give the industry the equivalent of a megalodon shark in a sea of great whites and hammerheads.

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Fresh off an onstage appearance at last week’s Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit in Nashville, Mary Ann Pruitt, CEO and founder of independent media agency Mosaic Media expounded on what she sees as the growing strength of independents against their bigger and better-armed holding company competitors.

One singular reason she believes this shift is happening is due to the “great equalizer” in programmatic marketplaces, which to her have empowered independents to compete with holding companies on a level they never have before. It’s more than just programmatic access — it’s the broader tech abilities that are accessible to all agencies, holdco or otherwise that’s helped the fighting power for any that invest in those tools. It’s also the flexibility that independents can bring to clients, while holdco agencies are often locked into whatever their parent company has invested in.

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As the movie business struggles to return to pre-pandemic box office attendance levels, a few of the cinema ad firms are collaborating to make their inventory available programmatically. 

Screenvision Media and Spotlight Cinema Networks have formed the Cinema Programmatic Alliance, which aims to make their inventory available to advertisers and agencies placing dollars through programmatic firms. The two have also included smaller cinema ad specialists to the alliance: Pecan Pie Productions and On the Wall, both of which focus more on local advertising.

Notably absent is the largest cinema ad firm, National CineMedia, which has its own programmatic offering in the market. Screenvision’s CEO John Partilla said the alliance offered NCM the chance to join the alliance, communicating via the Cinema Ad Council. NCM did not respond to requests for comment. 

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