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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The influx of AI agents is quickly creating new ways to autonomously browse the internet and shop online. However, the feature also poses potential challenges for publishers, advertisers, and e-commerce companies — including new problems with how to deal with bot traffic.

Last week, Google debuted a range of new features as part of its release of Gemini 2.0, including a preview of a new agent called Project Mariner that offers to help people with everything from researching and booking trips to shopping for a range of other products.

One demo developed in collaboration with Etsy showed Project Mariner helping to research and buy paint supplies based on the kind of art someone would want to create. Google also pointed out it wouldn’t purchase products without first getting human approval and that it can’t autonomously browse in the background. Although Mariner was designed as a Chrome browser feature, that could change depending on the outcome of its search antitrust trial. 

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There’s been a lot of speculation about Acxiom’s potential role in Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG, but an ongoing lawsuit could end up a wildcard, depending on its outcome.

In a case against IPG’s data warehouse Acxiom and performance marketing agency Kinesso, legal filings in recent weeks give a timely glimpse into allegations of the IPG companies allegedly misusing data to build their Real ID identity-resolution product. The lawsuit, filed in April by data firm Adstra, claims Kinesso and Acxiom breached a master data-supply agreement and used Adstra data to create a competing product. It also puts Acxiom’s offerings under a legal microscope, which could reveal strengths and weaknesses not spun by corporate statements or marketing materials.

The case has the potential to shape where Acxiom and Kinesso fit into IPG and Omnicom’s plans to bolster their combined adtech stack with new options for alternative IDs. Acxiom’s identity-resolution products are seen as a cornerstone of IPG’s data strategy that could help it compete with WPP and Publicis. However, a court ruling in favor of Adstra could bring potential financial, operational, and reputational risks.

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Ever since whispers surfaced about Omnicom making moves to snap up rival IPG Ryan Kangisser’s phone has been practically vibrating off his desk for clarity on what this means for the industry.

As chief strategy officer at Mediasense, the media advisory firm tasked with untangling this industry’s endless plot twists, he’s someone marketers call when they need answers. And right now, that’s in short supply. 

“We’ve had a few people reach out to us [since the news],” said Kangisser, playing coy about naming names.

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In what is likely to be one of the year’s biggest media stories, Omnicom Group has announced plans to acquire The Interpublic Group of Companies in a stock-for-stock transaction valued at approximately $13 billion.

This merger is set to create the world’s largest advertising conglomerate, combining renowned agencies such as BBDO, TBWA Worldwide, and McCann Worldgroup under one umbrella, after the two entities’ respective leadership teams decided that scale is the way forward on Madison Avenue.

According to official filings, the combined entity is projected to generate annual revenues exceeding $25 billion with an adjusted EBITA of $3.9 billion and free cash flow of $3.3 billion. Individually, Omnicom’s full-year revenue for 2023 was $14.69 billion, reflecting growth of 4.1%, while IPG’s was $10.89 billion, down from $10.93 billion in 2022.

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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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Omnicom’s plan to acquire Interpublic Group is a long way from being finalized. However, the combined company could help the holding companies make  — and benefit from — larger AI investments. 

On a Monday call with investors about the deal, executives from both companies mentioned ways the merged company could benefit from combining resources. Omnicom CEO John Wren said businesses need to continue investments to “stay on the cutting edge” adding both clients – and agency employees – will benefit from investing more into AI efforts.

“If Interpublic was three quarters of our size, yesterday I had $1 to invest in those efforts, now I have $1.67 to invest in those efforts,” Wren said. “It should make me more agile, it should make me take great investment risks in testing new technologies and platforms as they come along — all to benefit from better information, more accurate information, so our real knowledge workers and whatever craft they lie in are going to have the best tools to service those clients.”

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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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New lawsuits and deeper partnerships highlight the delicate balancing act between major publishers and AI companies.

Some of the first media companies to strike deals with OpenAI say they’re getting ready to release new AI-enabled features that aim to benefit readers, publishers and advertisers. One of the latest examples is Dotdash Meredith, which used AI to create a new way to target readers with contextual ads.

Using historical audience data and Amazon shopping data, the company trained a large language model to find correlations between content consumption and potential user behaviors. The new unit is expected to launch today with a major (undisclosed) retailer, Dotdash Meredith chief innovation officer Jonathan Roberts said yesterday while speaking at the AI Trailblazers marketing conference in New York. Other panelists included executives from Time, The New York Stock Exchange and The New York Times.

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