When Two Titans Merge

The advertising ecosystem has long grappled with a mystery: "I know half of my ad dollars are wasted, but I don't know which half." Will the new sheriff in town have answers?

- Yesudas S Pillai

The recent announcement of the Omnicom-IPG merger, poised to create the world's largest agency ecosystem, has generated buzz in the advertising and marketing world. As someone who has spent around 30 years in the advertising business and often spoken about the need for the agency ecosystem to transform, I watched this news with a mix of enthusiasm and dismay—enthusiasm for the potential it holds to reshape the agency world, and dismay at the possibility that true transformation might not even be a priority.

The advertising ecosystem has long grappled with one of its oldest mysteries: "I know half of my ad dollars are wasted, but I don't know which half."

This phrase, attributed to John Wanamaker over a century ago, remains as relevant today as ever, even in an era of digital sophistication. Despite all the advancements in data and analytics, the question of how to accurately attribute ad spending to tangible business outcomes continues to stump agencies and clients alike.

Between 2000 and 2020, more than 30 major mergers and acquisitions took place in the global advertising space, including WPP's acquisitions of Y&R and Grey Worldwide, consolidation of its media arms Mindshare and Media Edge, under Group M, Dentsu and Aegis Media and Publicis-Sapient. Yet, a report by Forrester in 2023 indicated that over 70% of clients feel agencies fail to deliver on their promised ROI post-merger. This data highlights the systemic failure of mergers to translate scale into value—a recurring pattern that undermines the industry's evolution.

The True Challenge Of Attribution