The dust has settled on the Omnicom–IPG merger. The combined entity has promised Wall Street $750 million in savings, driven heavily by a reduction in force of 10,000 to 15,000 people. In the process, the new Omnicom last week eliminated several legendary agency brands, folding FCB, DDB, and MullenLowe into a surviving trio: BBDO, McCann, and TBWA. This mirrors Publicis’ consolidation of Publicis and Leo Burnett into LEO, while WPP has effectively ended JWT, Grey, and Y&R as operating entities.
As holding companies double down on scale and operational efficiency, they’ve unintentionally created a meaningful opening for agencies that differentiate themselves through deep client relationships, earned creative, and ideas rooted in action rather than advertising architecture. Instead of chasing savings, smart firms are chasing outcomes by moving faster, partnering more closely, and solving real problems with work designed to drive change and deliver results.
Beyond the opportunity created, there are four important points to be made:
- Call the Agency Now Means Who and For What? — The long-standing relationships between creative agencies and clients, once protected by the perceived irreplaceability of big network brands, are now up for grabs. As legacy names disappear and holding companies consolidate, clients are questioning whether their agency of record is still the same entity, the same team, or even the same capability set they originally hired. Agencies with clear purpose, stable teams, and integrated earned-first capabilities are now best positioned to become the new “first call”, not by default, but by delivering unmistakable value.
- Geographic Reach Matters – Legacy ad agencies in Chicago and San Francisco have evaporated. The Chicago-based firms Burnett, Needham and FCB are no more. Large Midwestern clients such as SCJ or P&G will now have to look to others for primary agency support. The same can be said for large tech companies based in San Francisco as Goodby Silverstein & Partners, and other Bay area firms have been winnowed to miniature versions of themselves. Firms with established beachheads in these regions can thrive by picking up clients actively seeking new partners. Executing multi-local campaigns is every bit as essential as delivering multinational campaigns.
- Legacy Matters but Only with Reinvention — If you stand still, you will be roadkill. Legacy can be a powerful asset as clients value institutional memory, cultural relevance, and accumulated trust. But firms must continuously evolve to effectively meet the changing demands of clients and the marketplace. Today, reinvention means integrating earned-first thinking into creative, operating at the intersection of commerce, culture, and society, embracing AI, and delivering work that drives action and change while earning trust. Evolve your legacy, don’t simply rely on it.
- Benefit of Being Privately Owned — The industry is undergoing profound change, from the rise of AI to the decline of network TV to clients’ growing preference for project-based work. Independent firms are best positioned to meet this transformation because they can take big swings and invest quickly in the right tools, technology, offerings, and talent. Independence provides an agility and long-term orientation that holding-company agencies simply can’t match.
The investment thesis at the moment is consolidation, the drive for scale. But the client needs are still top-level service, imagination, relationships, and intelligence that spans both global public affairs and local culture. I like Edelman’s chances in this world of fewer competitors promising efficiency instead of brilliance tied to action.
Richard Edelman is CEO.
