Brands Lose As Ad Firms Become One-Stop Shops

Ad agencies are offering everything from creative and media to commerce. That means brand building is being quietly sidelined

- Gaurav Laghate

In Indian advertising today, there's one common pitch: We do it all. Creative. Media. Martech. Influencers. Artificial intelligence (AI). Commerce. If there's a funnel, every agency wants to own it, end-to-end.

But here's the problem: the more agencies chase dashboards and data layers, the more indistinguishable they become. And amid this convergence chaos, the oldest question in the business is being ignored: Who's thinking about the brand?

"Everyone wants to solve the full funnel, but the real moat is still in brand thinking," said Paritosh Srivastava, chief executive officer (CEO) of Saatchi & Saatchi, BBH India and Saatchi Propagate.

"Creative shops are now offering media, media agencies are hiring content teams, and consultants are peddling brand strategy. But if everyone does everything, who's standing for something?"

Srivastava adds that while Publicis Groupe's Power of One model helps agencies deliver integrated solutions, the danger lies in sameness.

"At some point, clients will ask what your real superpower is. You have to be famous for something."

Dheeraj Sinha, group chief executive, FCB India and South Asia, said, "It's no longer about just being a service provider. We're now in the business of business outcomes."

Under his leadership, FCB has merged its creative, digital, and performance units into a single platform, building AI-driven content and full-funnel services. "But amid all this, our job remains to keep brands culturally rooted. That can't be captured by CTRs (click-through rates) alone."