After the deal closed last week, today brings more news on strategy, structure and leadership – including the consolidation of storied agency brands.
Omnicom's post-IPG-takeover structure has been revealed today (Omnicom)
Following last week’s completion of advertising’s biggest-ever deal, the new-look Omnicom has today announced the nuts-and-bolts of its structure as it folds in IPG.
For a year, the deal progressed behind closed doors, with only scant details released around the edges. Upon conclusion last week, one analyst – Gartner’s Ewan McIntyre – told The Drum that, if the new Omnicom is to keep its top-spot as the presumptive biggest marcomms group in the world, it will need to start “communicating a lot more openly about [its] vision”.
Today is the day where the structure, strategy and leadership of the new Omnicom starts to come into view, including confirmation of the worst-kept secret in advertising: storied agency brands FCB and DDB are among those to be sunsetted as part of consolidation efforts, with more job losses to come.
Here’s everything we now know.
We’ve known for a while that John Wren, longtime Omnicom boss, is staying on as chair and chief executive officer (CEO), and that Philippe Krakowsky – his opposite number at IPG – would join as co-president and chief operating officer. Last week, we learned that his IPG colleagues Patrick Moore and E. Lee Wyatt Jr also joined Omnicom’s board.
Advertisement
Today we can confirm some more names to the list of senior leadership across the organization’s top-level leadership – a tweaked divisional structure that sees some name changes and ‘group’ dropped from most divisions like the former Omnicom Media Group.
Given that the deal was structured as a takeover, it should perhaps come as no surprise, but it remains striking that the list is dominated by Omnicom incumbents. An Omnicom spokesperson today says that the process was designed as “meritocracy”, albeit one that reflects that IPG did not have a vertical structure of its own. The spokesperson says that we can expect a more even split at the agency level.
Critics may also be surprised to see that most top-level leadership roles remain held by men, although Omnicom has highlighted senior enterprise-wide leaders Jacki Kelley, chief client and business officer, and Andrea Lennon, client experience officer, as key figures in its new structure.
That list of high-level business units is largely unchanged from the legacy Omnicom structure; what is new is confirmation of which agencies will now sit in each group.
After months of speculation, the consolidation of a number of big-name agencies is now confirmed. Storied shops DDB, FCB and MullenLowe are all to be retired by the middle of 2026 and folded into other agencies.
In its advertising division, that leaves three major global networks: BBDO, TBWA and McCann. FCB will be folded into BBDO; both DDB and Mullen Lowe into TBWA.
Alongside those major networks, a number of boutique agencies will continue to exist under the new Omnicom Advertising Collective. This list includes Antoni, GSP, Grabarz and Partners, GSD&M, Lucky Generals, Zimmerman, Carmichael Lynch, The Martin Agency, Deutsch, Lola, Africa and Merkley & Partners.
Other major agencies that will continue in the new structure include the below (this list is not exhaustive).
As the new Omnicom consolidates its agencies, it has also made clear today that further job losses are underway. Beginning back in October and continuing through December, a spokesperson confirmed 4,000 jobs are being cut. This is on top of the 3,200 cuts year-to-date listen in IPG's Q3 earnings, and the 3% staff reductions announced earlier this year by pre-merger Omnicom.
Advertisement
In addition, the spokesperson confirmed there may be further “dispositions” of agencies and Omnicom will look to drop down to minority from majority ownership for others.
When all is said and done, the organization will total around 105,000 workers.
Running through almost every element of Omnicom’s release today is what it sees as the jewel in its crown: data ‘operating system’ and ‘intelligence platform’ Omni, which makes up its own business division alongside commerce group Flywheel Commerce Network.
To Omni it adds Acxiom, the data shop that IPG paid $2bn for way back in 2018. By combining Acxiom and Omni, Omnicom hopes to take back an edge over competitor Publicis, which has been building its own similar identity-based data capability, spending billions on data houses Lotame and Epsilon.
Advertisement
With the incorporation of Acxiom, Omnicom says that it can unify 2.6bn global ideas and trillions of data points, without relying on cookies.
All of this underpins a massive media play: in a grand vision, today’s release says that Acxiom, alongside ID-less solutions, “will unify paid, owned, earned, and commerce channels into a seamless system that drives value, precision and measurable growth in a privacy-first world”.
Elsewhere, the new strategy touts “the industry’s deepest bench of award-winning creative talent” and a vision of infusing that talent with generative AI; leading in one of the industry’s boom areas of ‘connected commerce’; and technology leadership.
Altogether, Wren said in the release, that makes Omnicom “uniquely positioned to turn this moment into a catalyst for intelligent growth – for our people, our clients and our shareholders”.
Wren said “I am proud to welcome the people, agencies and clients of Interpublic to Omnicom and create a global community of the best and brightest professionals in the industry, all of whom will have access to the most advanced AI tools and Omni, our advanced intelligence platform. Together, we will be the go-to company that shapes how brands grow, people connect and culture evolves.”
Read more: