The Omnicom-IPG merger: What it really means for the industry

When Omnicom and Interpublic Group, two of advertising’s longest-standing rivals, announced their plan to merge, the industry paused mid-latte sip. Now that regulators have approved the deal, the shock is over, and reality has settled in.

This isn’t just a merger. It’s a rewrite of the marketing industry’s operating system.

A historic threat to the industry: Automation, redundancy and the great talent compression

Let’s name the thing no holding company town hall will say out loud: This merger accelerates a dramatic contraction in the number of people powering the industry. Omnicom and IPG share thousands of similar roles (media planning, client services, analytics, finance, production), and combining forces puts them under one giant spreadsheet labeled “rationalization.”

Add AI on top of that, and the story becomes even more stark. The merged company is architecting for automation across everything that can be templatized: optimization, forecasting, reporting, content production, QA, trafficking and a growing share of lower-level creative execution. Work that once required teams of 10 could require teams of three, assisted by machine-learning models that don’t need coffee breaks.

This isn’t incremental evolution. It’s a landmark shift where massive job redundancy is inevitable, junior talent pipelines are on the verge of collapse and execution becomes the role of software, leaving strategy and creativity as the last bastions of human value.

For a field built on apprenticeship and hands-on learning, this is the most disruptive change in decades.

Media pricing: The coming compression

One of the most immediate impacts will be in media pricing, creating ripples throughout the entire ecosystem.

By combining their global media buying power, Omnicom and IPG effectively create the largest consolidated negotiating force the industry has ever seen. Platforms know it; publishers know it; and every other holding company definitely knows it.

Many industry observers expect rate compression to accelerate as the merged group can command lower CPMs, CPCs and platform fees on bargaining weight alone. Smaller agencies and independents won’t be able to match the rates negotiated by a behemoth. This widens the gap between scale buyers and everyone else, risking a race to the bottom where media becomes a commodity and only the largest players can compete on price.

This shift may reshape how the industry defines media value altogether. When price becomes standardized, differentiation has to come from strategy, creative and proprietary technology (areas many agencies have underinvested in).

The client conundrum

On the surface, clients will be sold a dream of “integration,” “efficiency” and “unified data.” And some of that will be true, at least from a tooling standpoint.

But clients will also face a slew of other changes. More automation means less humans working on their business, and the new service model will be stretched thin as head count reduces. Not to mention the potential conflicts of interest as more brands come under one roof.

Savvy clients will use this moment to renegotiate fees, evaluate alternatives (from independents to tech-forward integrated agencies) or test hybrid in-house models. The ones who don’t may feel the impact later.

Where this goes next: A turning point

The question is no longer whether the industry changes. It’s how much and how fast.

The consolidation of talent, technology and buying power creates enormous advantages for the merged giant and massive pressure for everyone else. Industrywide downsizing is on the horizon as other holding companies follow suit, and we will see more reliance on AI for creative, media, analytics and operations.

We are on the precipice of redefining what agencies actually do for clients.

This is the first domino in a decade-long restructuring. While it’s disruptive, there’s a strange and quiet clarity to it, the kind that comes when the industry finally stops pretending its old model can survive unchanged.

Industry disruption creates space for new models. Agencies that combine technological fluency with creative craft (those built for this moment rather than retrofitted for it) may find themselves with an unexpected advantage.

The old guard is reorganizing; the new guard is just getting started.

This op-ed represents the views and opinions of the author and not of The Current, a division of The Trade Desk, or The Trade Desk. The appearance of the op-ed on The Current does not constitute an endorsement by The Current or The Trade Desk.