• Ad giant WPP offers free Friday lunches as a perk for staff as some express discontent at its RTO policy.
• The policy requires employees to work in-office four days per week, including two Fridays per month.
• WPP said the free lunches are not connected to an employee petition protesting the RTO policy.

Advertising giant WPP hopes to sweeten the deal on in-office work by promising free lunch on Fridays as it fights employee discontent over its RTO policy.

A WPP spokesperson told Business Insider complimentary lunches on Fridays were introduced at the company's UK-based campuses this month.

On Saturday, The Times reported that the free lunch at WPP's South Bank office in London offered beef ragù, garlic bread, and a spring salad.

The spokesperson told BI it was one of several perks being offered to help foster an appealing work environment for employees coming into the office. They did not confirm whether the free lunches would be permanent.

The initiative comes soon after over 20,000 people signed a petition expressing unhappiness at WPP's recent RTO mandate.

WPP's new rules have been controversial among employees, who were told by chief executive Mark Read that they now have to come into the office four times a week and commit to coming in two Fridays a month.

The memo, obtained by BI in January, was sent to 114,000 employees.

Read said that in-office attendance was associated with "stronger employee engagement, improved client survey scores, and better financial performance."

"I believe that we do our best work when we are together in person," he wrote. "It's easier to learn from each other, it's a better way to mentor colleagues starting out in the industry, and it helps us win pitches as a truly integrated team."

The petition, in contrast, described the policy as a "step backwards in supporting employee wellbeing and work-life balance."

"The mental and social effects on employees due to such rigid work regimes can be extensive," it said.

"Therefore, we call on Mark Read and the decision-making body at WPP to reconsider this mandate and adopt a policy that respects and prioritises the well-being and preferences of its employees."

Some staffers' complaints added in comments include the additional hours of traveling per day and the added expenses of commuting to and from the office.

WPP's spokesperson told BI the free lunch initiative was planned independently of the petition.

Employees have had mixed responses to RTO policies. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently told all corporate employees they had to be in the office five days a week. Goldman Sachs, Salesforce, and JPMorgan have followed suit.

While critics say the strict policies can erode trust and cause friction between management and staff, others have a more positive view. Gen Z, for example, may strongly benefit from being physically in the office, workplace experts previously told BI.

Benefits can include enhanced teamwork and more chances for mentoring and career development, Anita Williams Woolley, a professor of organizational behavior at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, said.

However, according to one 2024 survey, around three-quarters of Gen Z and about 50% of other generations said that hybrid working is their ideal setup. Experts have previously told BI more autonomy and flexibility can help to abate burnout and foster a better work-life balance.

• Ad companies targeted by a Rumble lawsuit say it's an attempt to "weaponize" antitrust laws.
• Rumble accused Diageo, WPP, and an ad trade group of colluding to boycott the platform.
• The ad companies say Rumble wasn't an attractive ad platform and that there was no conspiracy.

Advertisers targeted by the video platform Rumble in a lawsuit are hitting back.

Drinks giant Diageo, WPP and its media buying arm GroupM, and trade body the World Federation of Advertisers are seeking to dismiss a lawsuit filed against them last year by Rumble. They accuse the platform, which is popular among conservative audiences, of trying to "weaponize" antitrust laws to force advertisers to do business with it.

In Rumble's complaint, initially filed in a Texas court in August, the platform alleged that advertisers and agencies "collectively agreed to restrict the output of digital advertising on social media platforms"
through the WFA's now-defunct initiative, the Global Alliance for Responsible Media.

Rumble's lawsuit said this conspiracy resulted in higher advertising costs, reduced earnings for content creators, and inhibited the platform's growth and profitability.

In their response filed Friday, the WFA, WPP, and Diageo said the case should be dismissed because it didn't successfully allege an agreement, a relevant market, or harm to competition.

The filing says there are "perfectly good non-boycott reasons" why those advertisers and others "have chosen not to advertise on Rumble, which prides itself on lax content moderation and brand-safety measures."

Rumble, the WFA, and Diageo didn't respond to requests for comment. WPP declined to comment.

Rumble's case and the response from advertisers are notable in part because of the suit's similarities to one filed by Elon Musk's X, also in August last year. X is suing the WFA and almost a dozen advertisers who were GARM members — including big names like Mars, Shell, and Nestlé — alleging they conspired to pull ad dollars from X following Musk's takeover of the company formerly known as Twitter.

Those advertisers haven't yet filed a response.

Founded in 2019, GARM was a US-based initiative that aimed to provide frameworks and common language for the ad industry regarding harmful and sensitive content categories like hate speech, online piracy, and violence. Adherence to its Brand Safety Framework was voluntary, and it didn't single out any websites for advertisers to avoid by name.

However, some conservatives argued that GARM had an anti-conservative bias. The House Judiciary Committee, led by its chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, published an investigation last summer that alleged GARM and its members colluded to boycott platforms, podcasts, news outlets, and other content they disfavored, such as X and Joe Rogan's podcast on Spotify.

The WFA has maintained that it will contest the allegations and is confident that it adhered to competition rules.

In August, GARM ceased operations in the wake of Rumble and X's lawsuits, with the WFA saying at the time that the not-for-profit organization only had limited resources.

Advertisers avoided Rumble because its content was risky, the filing says

On its website, Rumble says its video platform grew amid the rise of "cancel culture" and as other services tightened their content moderation rules. Rumble says it supports "diverse opinions, authentic expression, and the need for open dialogue."

The motion to dismiss the suit from Diageo and others says this commercial decision also made Rumble riskier for brands.

"No sweeping conspiracy is needed to explain why brands would have separately and unilaterally chosen not to advertise on Rumble, which prides itself on allowing content other sites will not allow," the legal filing reads. It also says Rumble's lawsuit doesn't sufficiently provide evidence of a group boycott.

In its complaint, Rumble said that starting in June 2023, it contacted GroupM and Diageo separately about advertising on the site, but both parties declined to do so. Rumble speculated in its complaint that Diageo and GroupM didn't advertise with the company because it hadn't implemented policies based on GARM's brand safety standards.

In their legal filing, the advertising companies contend that this didn't amount to a collective agreement to withhold ad dollars from Rumble. While marketers used the GARM framework to inform their ad decisions, GARM didn't direct them to boycott a platform that didn't adhere to it or dole out consequences to advertisers who ignored it, the legal filing says.

"Rumble tries to convert a trade association initiative's short-lived, voluntary 'Brand Safety Framework' into a global conspiracy," the filing says.

The filing argues that brand-safety standards are pro-competitive rather than harming competition because they help protect advertisers and make it easier to transact across various platforms.

"The fact that Rumble did not grow as fast as it wanted does not suggest that the advertising it wished to host evaporated as opposed to landing at a different platform that is more attractive to advertisers," the legal filing says.

Advertisers being sued by Rumble say the case could have 'troubling' First Amendment implications

Rumble is seeking a "permanent injunction" against the WFA, WPP, and Diageo, prohibiting them from continuing their alleged conspiracy to withhold ad dollars from the platform.

The companies argue in their filing that this would have "troubling" First Amendment, or free speech, implications.

"Just as it would violate the First Amendment for the government to tell Rumble what content it must host on its website, it would be similarly unconstitutional for this Court to order Defendants to speak on Rumble," the WFA, WPP, and Diageo argue in their filing.

In addition, they argue that Rumble's choice of court is inappropriate because the case "has nothing to do with Texas, much less the Northern District of Texas" because none of the companies operate their businesses out of the state. The Northern District of Texas has become a favored venue among conservatives, with many of its judges appointed by Republican presidents. Rumble itself is headquartered in Canada.

X's lawsuit against advertisers was also filed in the same court in the Northern District of Texas.

Advertising industry executives are closely following the X and Rumble cases and the House Judiciary Committee's ongoing probe of GARM and its members. Some industry insiders previously told BI that while they felt the cases were without merit, the outcomes of the separate actions could stymie future responsible advertising initiatives.

• Staff at WPP are pushing back against the company's new 4-day RTO mandate.
• A public petition calling for the firm to revoke its policy has gained thousands of signatures.
• Shares in the company have fallen by 8% since the policy was announced.

A public petition criticizing advertising giant WPP over its recently announced four-day per-week return-to-office mandate has garnered thousands of signatures.

In an internal memo sent last week, WPP's CEO Mark Read told the company's workforce of more than 100,000 employees that they would be expected to spend an average of four days a week in the office from April.

"I believe that we do our best work when we are together in person," Read wrote in the memo. Since the policy was announced, WPP shares have fallen by 8%.

In response, a group calling itself "Concerned WPP Employees" has created a petition on Change.org calling for the company to revoke the policy.

"WPP's decision seems to be a step backwards in supporting employee wellbeing and work-life balance, citing anecdotal data that either does not exist or has been misrepresented," the petition states.

It argues that "rigid work regimes" like the WPP mandate can have "extensive" mental and social impacts on employees.

The petition calls on Read and WPP leadership to "reconsider this mandate and adopt a policy that respects and prioritises the well-being and preferences of its employees."

The petition's creators told BI that their goal was to "clearly demonstrate how deeply unpopular this mandate from our CEO, Mark Read, is across the global WPP network."

Avenues to take action internally were limited and associated with substantial risk, they said.

"Whilst no official response has so far been provided, we are aware that the sheer volume of signatories so far received has created substantial internal debate across our C-suite leadership population," the petition creators said.

The petition had received over 7,500 signatures in the four days since it was created.

It is not clear how many signatories are WPP employees, as Change.org is a public forum that allows signatures from people outside the organization.

"We can (and will) validate signatories if necessary should our leadership team take the unfortunate decision to challenge the reliability of thousands of employee voices," the petition's creators told BI.

One WPP employee, speaking with BI on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on company policy, said that there had been "palpable dismay" inside the company at the way the policy has been handled.

'We're in the communications business but this could have been done so much better, a lot of people here think," the employee said. "You pick your moments to do something like this. And with a shaky economy and nervous clients, now is not the time to alienate staff."

When asked about the petition, a WPP spokesperson said the company knew the four-day mandate would not be popular with everyone, but said that WPP believed it was "the right policy for the long-term interests of the company as a whole."

"We will take the time to implement it in a collaborative and pragmatic way with our teams," the spokesperson said.

The company previously told BI that it was not implementing the policy until April to give it time to address office capacity and other concerns.

RTO policies haven't gone without challenges. As major companies have turned away from flexible working, many have been criticized by some staff.

After Deutsche Bank mandated staff come in for three days a week, the company faced a wave of backlash from staff who complained about the lack of office space and bottlenecks.

At the German software giant SAP, thousands of staff signed an internal letter saying that they felt "betrayed" by the company's "radical" RTO policy. There have been no reports that the letter altered the company's policy.

Legal routes against RTO mandates are fairly limited. Unless there's a protected reason under established law, such as a medical circumstance, employees have no recourse to take legal action against RTO mandates, Ron Zambrano, the employment litigation chair at the California law firm West Coast Trial Lawyers, previously told BI.

Workers often have little choice but to accept the RTO push or look for a different company, prompting some employment experts to warn that the wave of return-to-office directives could fuel attrition.

Losing talent is a risk some companies are willing to take to get workers back to the office, Ravin Jesuthasan, a future of work expert and author of "The Skills-Powered Organization," previously told BI.

These companies have calculated that they have the legroom to implement stricter policies and perhaps lose some core talent but essentially be fine, Jesuthasan said.

"Some organizations might say, you know what? We've got a really deep pipeline of talent. There's lots of people who want to come work here, and so this is our culture and this is how we're going to sustain our culture," he said.

• The advertising giant WPP is telling workers to come to the office four days a week from April.
• Business Insider obtained the internal memo sent to the company's 114,000 employees.
• "I believe that we do our best work when we are together in person," CEO Mark Read said in the memo.

The advertising giant WPP has told its workforce of more than 100,000 employees to return to the office at least four days a week.

"From the beginning of April this year, the expectation across WPP will be that most of us spend an average of four days a week in the office," WPP CEO Mark Read wrote in a memo sent to staff on Tuesday and seen by Business Insider.

The Financial Times first reported the move.

The policy is set to go into effect in April to give staff time to make adjustments and to "address capacity requirements" in offices, he wrote.

The CEO said in-office attendance was associated with "stronger employee engagement, improved client survey scores and better financial performance."

"I believe that we do our best work when we are together in person," he wrote. "It's easier to learn from each other, it's a better way to mentor colleagues starting out in the industry, and it helps us win pitches as a truly integrated team."

Under the new policy, WPP will allow staff one flexible working day a week and consider individual circumstances through a formal approval process, a person familiar with the matter told BI.

One WPP employee, speaking with BI on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on company policy, said they still had questions about the return-to-office plan's practicalities. They said that in some offices, there were already issues with securing enough desk space or meeting rooms, for example.

AT&T this week began implementing a staggered five-day RTO mandate, and workers told BI that limited available desks and elevators at some offices complicated their return.

Amazon encountered office-capacity issues last year, which, as BI previously reported, delayed its full return-to-office plan for some employees.

Another WPP insider said they felt the move would be positive for younger staff and help them network and learn from colleagues, while allowing flexibility for those who required it.

WPP's announcement follows that of its fellow advertising giant Publicis Groupe, which last year told employees to return to the office at least three days a week. The company later fired hundreds of employees for noncompliance with the mandate, Ad Age reported in October.

Bruce Daisley, a workplace-culture consultant and former Twitter vice president, said WPP's return-to-office policy would be an employee-morale gamble because advertising jobs already aren't as lucrative and aspirational as they once were.

"Working in an advertising agency used to be gloriously paid, now those who work in the field squint into spreadsheets all day earning salaries that are often substantially lower than the clients and media owners they deal with," Daisley wrote in his Make Work Better newsletter.

Read the full memo CEO Mark Read sent to WPP employees:

To everyone at WPP

I hope you had a restful holiday season and the chance to recharge over the break.

As I wrote to you in December, 2025 is going to be a year of opportunity for WPP — a year when we can win through a relentless focus on our clients.

With that in mind, I wanted to share our priorities for the next 12 months, as well as a change we are going to make in the way we work.

Clients, creativity and our work

WPP's mission is to deliver creative transformation for the world's leading brands. This means not only producing exceptional work in every discipline of modern marketing, but helping clients transform how they operate for a very different world. This is ever more true of our largest and most important clients, who come to us for the quality of what we do, the breadth of our skills, and our ability to prepare them for the future.

While industry mergers and jostling for status may distract our competitors, focus will be paramount for us in 2025. We have the opportunity to stand out by being more obsessed than ever with serving our clients. In every single decision we make, we should ask ourselves "how will this help us do even better work for our clients?" Those companies who embrace this philosophy will be those who emerge on top.

Technology, data and AI

Demand from clients for creative ideas, effective media plans, brilliant PR campaigns and outstanding design remains constant, but the way in which we deliver our work is changing faster than I have ever seen. That's why technology, data and AI are at the heart of our plans for the future, and why adoption of our AI-driven marketing operating system WPP Open has grown so quickly. Keeping up that momentum is another key objective for 2025.

WPP Open helped us win a number of 2024's biggest reviews and we are going to increase our investment in Open this year to build on the success it has brought us. It will be central to how we bring an integrated, AI-enabled offer to market, with the goal of producing better results for clients and winning more than our fair share of pitches in the year ahead.

A culture of winning, together

Finally, we are going to focus on the culture of our company. For all our technological sophistication, we remain a people business. Across everything we do, our success still relies on the fundamentals of human connection, creativity and relationships. Teams of talented individuals, working towards common goals, are what drives growth for our clients and our agencies.

I believe that we do our best work when we are together in person. It's easier to learn from each other, it's a better way to mentor colleagues starting out in the industry, and it helps us win pitches as a truly integrated team. The data from across WPP agencies shows that higher levels of office attendance are associated with stronger employee engagement, improved client survey scores and better financial performance. More of our clients are moving in this direction and expecting it of the teams who work with them.

For all these reasons, spending more time together is important to all of us, and we are making a change to help that happen. From the beginning of April this year, the expectation across WPP will be that most of us spend an average of four days a week in the office.

This doesn't mean we're going back to old ways of doing things. During the pandemic we all learned the value of greater flexibility in our working lives and of being trusted to balance work and personal commitments. We need to keep that spirit of flexibility and trust, and will approach this transition with pragmatism and an understanding of people's different circumstances. There will be a clear process to request additional flexibility — including for those with caring responsibilities, health issues and other considerations. Some roles that have always been fully or largely remote will continue as they are.

We know that for some colleagues this new policy will require adjustments to their routines and arrangements, which is why it will not come into effect until April — giving people time to make any changes they need to. There is also work to do between now and April to ensure we make the best use of our workspaces. Our WPP campuses offer superb working environments in beautifully designed buildings with leading environmental credentials. But it will take detailed planning in the coming months to address capacity requirements and other related areas, and I'd like to thank the teams who are already hard at work figuring that out.

Your leaders are working closely with the WPP People and Real Estate teams, and will follow up with next steps for your part of the business. It's important that we take a consistent approach across our agencies, who will communicate the requirements to you in detail. In the meantime, visit insideWPP for FAQs, details of the policy, and an AI-powered chat agent to help answer your questions.

A collaborative, winning culture is what makes WPP and our agencies a great place to work, and it's the key to our future growth and success. I firmly believe this change we are making will protect and enhance that culture, for the benefit of everyone.

As always, if you want to get in touch, email me.

Mark

• Ad industry M&A activity is expected to surge in 2025.
• Key areas of interest include retail media, streaming TV, influencer marketing, and AI.
• Insiders think companies like Accenture, AppLovin, and The Trade Desk could be active acquirers.

Bankers and M&A advisors say advertising and marketing acquisition deal flow picked up in the second half of 2024 after a slow start, and they're expecting a flurry of activity in the new year.

"It feels like the tide has turned," said William Ritchie, the managing director of the M&A advisory firm WY Partners.

Some in the industry told Business Insider they thought Omnicom's planned $13.25 billion deal to buy Interpublic Group would be a lightning rod for further ad industry M&A in 2025.

Key areas of buyer interest include the fast-growing retail media and streaming TV sectors, influencer marketing, and the implementation of data and AI. Industry insiders said private-equity buyers would also most likely remain active.

"Everyone is looking for the glue that ties together some of the components," said Charles Ping, a managing director of the Winterberry Group management consultancy.

BI talked to about a dozen advertising, marketing, and adtech industry executives, investors, bankers, and advisors, who speculated about the deals they think could happen in 2025 and beyond. Some of the people were granted anonymity to protect business relationships; their identities are known to BI.

Accenture could go revenge shopping

Matt Lacey, a partner at the M&A advisory group Waypoint Partners, said the combination of Omnicom and IPG may leave Accenture feeling vulnerable. Its Accenture Song creative marketing group could look to acquire a new asset in areas like data and media, "where it has limited capabilities," he said.

Brian Wieser, an analyst at Madison and Wall, wrote in a recent note to clients that Accenture Song was arguably the "world's largest marketing services business" — at least until Omnicom and IPG come together. Wieser noted that it marked "high single-digit growth" in its most recent quarter, faster growth than its agency-holding-company peers.

Accenture has been a consistently active acquirer of advertising and marketing businesses in recent years. In April it acquired the customer-engagement agency Unlimited to boost its customer-relationship-management offering. In June it bought the Brazilian creative agency Soko.

Another area of interest for Accenture Song is experiential marketing, a person familiar with its strategy told BI.

"Experiential is going to be hot in 2025," this person said. "The sheer fact that people are coming out and younger generations don't just want to be in a digital world, they want social connections. You can do a significant amount of innovation in the integration between tech and real-world settings."

AppLovin could swoop in for deals while its stock is riding high

"Everyone is looking at AppLovin," said Alex Iosilevich, a partner at Alignment Growth, which invests in media and entertainment companies. "The expectation is they'll be acquisitive."

AppLovin's stock has been soaring, and it's been trading at a market value above $100 billion. Investors have been wowed by its move into e-commerce, which has opened up a new and lucrative pool of advertisers beyond its mobile-gaming roots.

While AppLovin's executives have said M&A isn't part of the company's near-term growth strategy, that hasn't stopped industry insiders from speculating about its next move.

"I think they should buy someone like Snapchat and get a foothold in the social space," said Alex Merutka, a former early AppLovin employee who's now the CEO of the adtech company Craftsman+.

Other ad industry insiders said AppLovin could further expand into connected TV, adding to its 2022 acquisition of Wurl, a company that helps publishers distribute and monetize their video content on TV screens.

Connected TV presents a "massive area to unlock SMB budgets to play in TV ads," said Tom Triscari, the CEO of the programmatic-advertising advisory firm Lemonade Projects.

Criteo could be bought or go shopping itself — or both

Criteo has long been the subject of takeover speculation. Reuters reported in early 2023 that the company had appointed the investment bank Evercore to explore its strategic options.

News that Criteo's CEO, Megan Clarken, plans to exit the company next year also fueled rumors that a sale could be in the cards. Digiday listed The Trade Desk, Microsoft, Walmart, Publicis Groupe, and WPP's GroupM as logical suitors.

Triscari said it could be equally possible that Criteo itself makes a transformative acquisition.

"Criteo has retail media, the second-best shopper dataset to Amazon, and better adtech than Amazon," Triscari said. "All they need is an access point to CTV inventory. Very doable with some creative options out there."

Criteo might also want to double down on retail-media tech. Digiday reported this summer that Criteo had been in talks to acquire Skai, a marketing platform that specializes in retail search advertising, among other things. The Israeli news site Calcalist reported this month that Skai recently laid off 80 employees, which could signal that the company is preparing for a sale.

Havas listing could spur deals

The French advertising group Havas listed on the Euronext stock exchange in Amsterdam this month, separating from its parent company, Vivendi.

Havas has said it will continue taking a "disciplined approach to acquisitions," with a plan to target high-growth markets and areas like data analytics, digital transformation, and AI.

"They look at everything right now," Ritchie, of WY Partners, said.

Havas had a busy 2024 with the acquisitions of the data firm DMPG, the B2B marketing company Ledger Bennett, the Australian media agency Hotglue, and the social-media agency Wilderness, among others.

IAS could get taken private

BI reported last month that KKR and other private-equity buyers were weighing a deal to acquire the publicly traded ad-verification firm Integral Ad Science. KKR and IAS declined to comment at the time.

Bloomberg first reported that IAS had appointed the investment bank Jefferies to explore its options after receiving inbound takeover interest.

A take-private deal could help IAS grow further without the quarterly Wall Street scrutiny.

Speaking generally about the adtech industry, Ping, of Winterberry, said, "There are many companies that don't have access to the capital that they imagined they would when they listed, and it's hampering their growth, particularly if they have a global outlook."

He added that take-private deals could unlock new capital while offering some value back to shareholders. Ping pointed to Mediaocean's $500 million acquisition of the CTV advertising and analytics firm Innovid and to the advanced-TV ad company Cadent's $324 million acquisition of the performance marketing company AdTheorent as recent examples of this trend.

PE-backed independent agency groups could make big moves

Jay Pattisall, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, said the consolidation of Omnicom and IPG could open up more opportunities for private-equity-backed independent ad agencies like Dept, Horizon Media, PMG, Tinuiti, and Wpromote.

"Anticipate more growth in independents' innovation investments and more focus in their proposition to compete with the global consolidation of marketing scale at Omnicom, Publicis, and WPP," Pattisall wrote in a recent blog post.

According to the advisory firm SI Partners, private-equity and private-equity-backed transactions were responsible for about a third of deal volume in the agencies, consultancies, and technology-service-provider sectors in the year to mid-November.

Some might seek new investors, given where they are in their private-equity investment life cycles.

Dept, which sold a majority stake to Carlyle Group in 2020, is expected to be in the market for a new investor next year, industry sources told BI.

The US media agency Horizon Media could also be in play, since Temasek, the investment firm that bought a minority share in 2021, will want an exit at some point, said Dave Morgan, the executive chairman of the TV-ad-buying company Simulmedia. Last month Horizon added a full-service creative agency to its ranks, hinting at ambitions to become a bigger global network.

Talent agencies like CAA, Wasserman, and UTA will be jockeying for influencer experts

M&A insiders said talent agencies were gearing up to make deals to broaden their offerings beyond traditional talent management.

Influencer specialists are at the top of their shopping lists, these people said.

"You have this melding — where does influencer live in the context of things like TikTok Shop or Instagram?" said Bob Morris, a managing partner of the M&A advisory firm Bravery Group. "We hear over and over that talent agencies are looking for different models and sets of mechanics."

Talent agencies are also looking to become more data-centric to identify which influencers drive sales, Morris said. Adobe Analytics said influencers and other affiliate marketers drove about 20% of US Cyber Monday e-commerce revenue this year.

There are plenty of interesting targets on the market. In 2024, 17 creator-focused startups raised at least $10 million in new funding, totaling over $900 million.

Could The Trade Desk buy Roku?

The Trade Desk this year announced a coming connected-TV operating system called Ventura, which it said was designed to make the buying and selling of streaming TV ads more efficient.

Ahead of the launch, The Trade Desk's CEO, Jeff Green, batted off speculation that it planned to rival Roku, saying it wanted to continue to partner and not compete with the TV platform.

In separate notes to investors, analysts at Guggenheim and Needham said they thought it was likely that The Trade Desk could eventually acquire Roku to advance its TV ambitions.

"It's almost impossible to build these" TV platforms now, the Needham analyst Laura Martin said in an interview on Bloomberg TV. Roku has 85 million homes watching four hours of TV a day on average, which would open up a large engaged audience and lots of first-party data to The Trade Desk's advertisers.

All eyes are on WPP's next move

WPP was already licking its wounds after Publicis Groupe hired Snoop Dogg to help promote that it had become the world's largest advertising holding company. The coming together of the third- and fourth-biggest firms, Omnicom and IPG, is set to push WPP further down the pile.

"It will put even more pressure on Mark Read," WPP's CEO, said David Jones, the CEO of a rival ad firm, The Brandtech Group. "And it will bring renewed interest from the investor community."

WPP insiders and observers had speculated for more than a year that the company might be taken private by a private-equity firm or that it might announce its own merger with another holding company.

But some industry insiders now think it's more likely that divestitures are in the cards.

"I think WPP is too big of a buy to go private, but I think they will have a divestiture plan that they are going to execute on in areas that are not high performing and not sexy enough for the public markets," said Andreas Roell, the CEO of Evros Group, which advises on media deals. Case in point: WPP in August sold its majority stake in FGS Global to the private-equity firm KKR in a deal that valued the public-affairs and communications group at $1.7 billion.

AdAge reported that in a recent memo to employees, Read described the Omnicom-IPG deal as "good news" for WPP, adding that WPP would double down on its strategy around creativity, data, AI, and tech "while our peers are distracted and turning inward."

• Ad industry insiders say the Omnicom takeover of Interpublic Group could kick off more M&A.
• Insiders laid out who could be involved, from WPP to smaller holding companies.
• Private equity and global solutions providers like Accenture also could be consolidators.

The planned $13.25 billion takeover by ad holding company Omnicom of Interpublic Group by merger has industry insiders speculating: Who's next?

Other agency giants face similar conditions that led two of the six big ad-holding companies to seek a merger. There's the concentration of ad dollars with tech giants Google, Meta, and Amazon; the need for media-buying scale to maintain an edge with global advertisers; and the growing use of AI that threatens to wipe out certain agency tasks. The US ad industry has barely grown over the past few years. By combining, Omnicom and IPG are looking to ensure their continued survival.

Some industry insiders think the Omnicom-IPG tie-up is just the start of a massive reordering of the $70 billion ad agency industry and that it's only a matter of time before other holding companies are forced to acquire or be acquired as they look to bulk up.

"From an M&A perspective, it's only going to add fuel to the fire," said William Ritchie, founding and managing director of the media and technology advisory firm WY Partners. "As others vie for competitive advantage over the newly crowned world's largest holding company, I'd expect there is going to be more competition for the best assets and more focus on building a streamlined data and tech-first offering which can compete — notably with companies like WPP, which remains behind the curve on competitive advantage here."

Ritchie said he sees continuing interest in assets that specialize in using data, tech, and AI to inform advertising, as well as PR and communications companies. He noted KKR's recent move to increase its stake in FGS Global, a comms and public affairs firm.

The IPG-Omnicom combo will spark more consolidation for other reasons, said Andreas Roell, CEO of Evros Group, which advises on media, marketing, entertainment, and tech deals. Once the new group decides what it wants to be known for, it may discard the units that don't fit that new identity and also divest some agencies that have competing clients or culture clashes.

Other networks will have to look in the mirror and decide if they're strong enough to acquire weaker networks or acknowledge they're falling behind due to tech disruption, Roell added.

"My prediction is that 2025 will serve as a reckoning year for networks," he said.

Other holding companies could partner up

Starting at the top of the food chain, some industry insiders think the upheaval could force two other longtime rivals to come together: French ad-holding company Publicis Groupe, which has been outperforming its competitors lately, and London-based WPP.

"Mark Read has not done the job that he probably expected he would be able to do; [Arthur] Sadoun is doing a great job," Tom Triscari, CEO and founder of Lemonade Projects, a programmatic ad agency, said of WPP's and Publicis' leaders, respectively.

Such a combo might be tricky to align culturally, though. A proposed merger between Publicis Groupe and Omnicom famously broke down in 2014 after they failed to agree on multiple fronts, including which agency would be seen as the acquirer and who would be appointed chief financial officer. It would also need to pass regulatory muster. That could be harder to do if the IPG and Omnicom deal succeeds, reducing the number of big agency groups in the sector. And there would be so much complexity that Publicis might not see the upside.

Another top holding company that could be active is Havas. Its parent, France's Vivendi, just approved its split into four companies. This is set to lead to Havas being publicly traded as its own company. Havas has indicated that it has M&A in its sights.

A number of other smaller, independent ad-holding companies could help bigger players scale up, like Mark Penn's Stagwell, the Bill Koenigsberg-led Horizon Media, or the Martin Sorrell-founded S4 Capital.

David Morgan, executive chairman of TV ad-buying company Simulmedia, said Horizon Media could be in play since Temasek, the investment firm that bought a minority share in 2021, needs an exit at some point.

Digital performance shops like PMG and Kepler also could be of interest.

Private equity has been circling

The big holding companies could also be a target for private-equity giants. Apollo, KKR, and Blackstone have shown interest in media and entertainment. Industry insiders have speculated for months that WPP, which once ranked as No. 1 among agency businesses, could be taken private — or at least some parts of it could be.

"They all see the same thing — these assets are bloated and mismanaged," said an industry player who's had conversations with PE firms. They asked for anonymity to preserve business relationships. Their identity is known to BI.

Another group of potential acquirers is companies like IBM and Capgemini, which provide a range of business solutions. Tata Consultancy Services and Accenture Song have eyed ad agencies as a way to offer end-to-end services to clients. Tata was in talks to buy R/GA this year and Accenture acquired creative agency Droga5 in 2019.

When it comes to deals that are just about getting bigger, though, there's plenty of skepticism that bulking up will solve the problems agencies face.

"Agencies today are not losing to the tech giants because of a shift in power," said Jay Friedman, CEO of the Goodway Group, a brand consulting firm. "They're losing because the capabilities they have aren't fit for how brands need to buy advertising today. They need a better cost model overall, which is global and AI-driven."