Advertising in Five

Episodes

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  WPP Names Turnbull to Lead Creative 19.10.2026 4m

  Brand Spur reports WPP has appointed outgoing McCann chief Tyler Turnbull to head WPP Creative from early 2027, succeeding Jon Cook, with Eric Campbell expected to take over as VML's global chief executive in March. Digiday reports Dentsu wants entertainment funded as its own line in every brand budget, and that Fender and Marshall have launched content series aimed partly at how they appear in AI search answers, an effect the trade cannot yet measure. Marketing Dive reports marketers are taking influencer measurement into their own hands by spending more to amplify creator content, while Fox has added Omnicom, Stagwell and Simulmedia as agentic buying partners and Arby's has hired former Papa Johns marketing chief Jenna Bromberg.
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  A Two-Speed Ad Market, and Dentsu Bets on Brands 16.10.2026 4m

  New WARC research reported by Marketing Dive finds consumer goods advertisers raising ad intensity while technology firms retreat, a split WARC calls a two-speed marketplace. Publicis posted five percent third-quarter organic growth with Arthur Sadoun describing a two-speed artificial intelligence picture, Meta announced Ads Super Burst for reserved three to twenty-four hour windows on Facebook and Instagram, and Dentsu relaunched Carat on a dead reach proposition as rivals pitch media as one door. Also moving: Clear Channel's two television hires, Havas naming India its largest Asia Pacific market, Elizabeth Rutledge retiring from American Express, an expanded Adobe and NVIDIA partnership, and a Bank of America survey putting ChatGPT ahead of Google Search on expected spend increases.
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  Publicis Accelerates, Havas Buys Its Growth 15.10.2026 4m

  Publicis posted five percent third-quarter organic growth, ahead of a 4.8 percent consensus, per Quartz, with full-year guidance confirmed at 4.5 to 5 percent, while Havas reported 2.4 percent organic growth with acquisitions and currency adding most of its 7.2 percent net revenue rise. AdExchanger reports Prebid is proposing to let ad servers bid into Prebid, reversing the current flow, as the Google ad tech remedies play out, and WPP named Adam Gerhart Global Chief Client Officer under Chief Operating Officer Devika Bulchandani, per Mediaweek. Also moving: Arthur Sadoun's comments on three-way global pitches via Mumbrella, Bloomberg's report that Meta blocked ByteDance and TikTok-directed ads across seven markets, and Adweek's 2026 Experiential Awards shortlist.
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  The CEO Pitches the Agency 13.10.2026 4m

  Digiday reports PepsiCo's chief executive Ramon Laguarta pitched the new Publicis media partnership directly to investors, with the estimated 1.9 billion dollar account moving from Omnicom without a formal review, and Coca-Cola now said to be preparing a review of its own. WPP named McCann's Tyler Turnbull as incoming chief executive of WPP Creative from early 2027, and Havas restructured its UK and Ireland operations under a single leader spanning media, creative, data and PR. Adweek, citing a leaked memo, reports Spectrum's chief marketing officer and chief commercial officer will exit at year end, plus Meta blocking ByteDance ads in seven markets and Joe Public's double win at the Loeries.
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  WPP names its creative chief, Meta cuts off ByteDance 12.10.2026 4m

  WPP has named Omnicom's Tyler Turnbull chief executive of WPP Creative starting in early 2027, succeeding Jon Cook at a unit Campaign India reports was down 4.9 per cent like for like in the first half. Meta has stopped selling ads to ByteDance in seven markets, a block Bloomberg first reported that also covers third-party campaigns pointing users toward TikTok. Also today: Dentsu Creative finds 76 per cent of senior marketers say they are making more content with diminishing impact, OpenAI is hiring an agency partner for ChatGPT ads, and Omnicom, Publicis and WPP all pitched for Aldi's global creative review.
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  WPP Taps McCann's Turnbull for Creative 09.10.2026 4m

  Adweek reports WPP has tapped McCann global CEO Tyler Turnbull as its next global CEO of WPP Creative, filling the creative half of Jon Cook's role and opening a succession question at McCann. Adweek also reports Paramount revenue chief Jay Askinasi will lead ad sales for Skydance, with WBD's Ryan Gould and Bobby Voltaggio exiting. Digiday argues agencies are pitching agentic media buying faster than clients will cede control, and AdExchanger reports data and identity vendors are planning around blocks tied to Apple's iOS 27.
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  Apple's Programmatic Block Widens 08.10.2026 4m

  AdExchanger reports Apple's iOS 27 block now names LiveRamp, ID5, Permutive and Audigent alongside The Trade Desk's Unified ID 2.0, and is set to widen to hundreds of programmatic data companies, pending confirmation from Apple. Mediaweek reports WPP Media's job advertising across Australia and New Zealand fell 41 percent last quarter per the Pointer Index, while Publicis Groupe advertised 105 roles, up 24 percent. Also: MediaPost's Laurie Sullivan argues a cottage industry is forming around AI as OpenAI and Anthropic court smaller brands, marketers at Chili's, Disney and Alaska Airlines describe longer-running creator deals, and Paramount Skydance's 110 billion dollar Warner Bros. Discovery takeover closed Tuesday.
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  Stagwell Retires Assembly, Nutella Buys Two Super Bowl Spots 07.10.2026 4m

  Adweek reports Stagwell is sunsetting the Assembly agency brand and relaunching it as Stagwell Media under new chief executive Liz Rutgersson, built around its proprietary Stagwell Machine platform. Digiday reports AI agents at S4 Capital's Monks run unsupervised for days with tokens and talent budgeted from one pot, while Marketing Dive reports Ferrero will air two Nutella commercials at next year's Super Bowl inside a stated fifty-million-dollar 2027 plan. Madrid-based SAMY has acquired U.S. influencer shop Get Engaged in a cash-and-equity deal a person familiar told Adweek is valued in the low nine figures, terms undisclosed by the companies.
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  VML's CEO Exits, Google's Remedies Land 06.10.2026 4m

  Mumbrella reports Jon Cook is leaving WPP after three decades, staying on as global CEO of VML and CEO of WPP Creative through March 2027 while Eric Campbell takes the VML role; Mediaweek reports no successor named for WPP Creative. AdExchanger reports Google and the Justice Department filed proposed final judgments in the ad tech antitrust case, ranging from conduct restrictions to a possible exchange divestiture, and Digiday puts record midterm political spending at 11.6 billion dollars with practitioners warning of fourth-quarter inventory crowd-out. Also: Adweek reports TikTok's rebranded Pangle network spans nearly 400,000 apps, and Storyboard18 reports Dentsu is a finalist against incumbent Wavemaker for Pernod Ricard India's media account.
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  Safari Goes Dark for The Trade Desk 02.10.2026 5m

  AdExchanger reports The Trade Desk cannot serve ads to Safari on iOS 27, with Apple investigating and no confirmed cause; practitioners read the block as deliberate. Advertising Week New York opens Monday with a creator-weighted agenda and a $100 million creator-brand deal challenge, per Marketing Dive, while Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery set an anticipated closing date for their merger. Also: AdExchanger on agencies rethinking ownership of the agentic AI tools and data they build for clients, Stagwell's and Havas's cases against the Big Three, and Amazon's estimate that about a fifth of brand sales land after the attribution window.
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  Salesforce Pays $2B for AI Customer Research 01.10.2026 5m

  Salesforce has agreed to acquire AI customer research platform Listen Labs at a valuation of roughly $2 billion against about $30 million in annualized revenue, per Tech Times, setting a price marker on qualitative discovery work. Adweek reports BBDO New York's chief executive, chief creative officer and chief client officer are all departing, the first senior network exits tied to Omnicom's acquisition of IPG, while Mint reports Omnicom Production has shifted about 30 percent of international work volume to India. Mumbrella reports WPP's Australian advertising agency revenue fell 24 percent to $191 million after roughly $60 million in creative account losses.
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  Google's Remedies Land, Agencies Feel the Squeeze 30.09.2026 6m

  AdExchanger argues the unsealed remedies in the Google ad tech monopoly case arrive too little and too late for publishers, with relief that is behavioral rather than structural and the ad stack left intact. An Investing.com sector outlook puts digital ad spend up roughly 8.7 percent last year against near-flat holding company revenue, and reads Omnicom, WPP and Publicis as three responses to the same squeeze. Also: OpenAI begins rolling out ChatGPT Ads across seven Southeast Asian markets and Taiwan, and an opinion piece in The Media Leader makes the case that if the pitch is dying, planning has to be priced.
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  WPP Set to Win Coca-Cola International Media 28.09.2026 5m

  Campaign says it understands WPP is set to take Coca-Cola's international media, data and technology account, excluding North America, Japan and Korea, with an announcement expected soon. WPP is also losing chief financial officer Jennifer Wilson to Diageo after three years, per More About Advertising, and The Hollywood Reporter says the distributor of Alex Gibney's Elon Musk documentary cannot buy trailer placements on YouTube, TikTok, Meta or X. Also: Isle of Any took two Black Pencils and two Agency of the Year titles at D&AD, Mastercard named We. Communications its global communications partner, and The Trade Desk is repricing employee stock options.
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  WPP Takes Nestlé China Content, Opens London Production Flagship 24.09.2026 5m

  MediaPost reports WPP won Nestlé's Greater China content development assignment after a multi-agency pitch, folding social, content, commerce, media and production into one AI-powered model while Publicis Media stays on as a media partner. WPP also opened Devon's Point, a 34,000 square foot production flagship in East London tied to its Elevate 28 strategy, and Digiday breaks down how per-token AI pricing is reshaping agency cost structures. Omnicom Media says it booked 3.3 billion dollars in new billings in the first half citing the same COMvergence barometer Publicis used, per Yahoo Finance, leaving two groups claiming the lead on different measures.
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  Publicis Tops the Board, Creatives Churn Through AI Tools 23.09.2026 5m

  COMvergence puts Publicis Media first in global new business for the first half at $3.24 billion in net billings, with Dentsu and Havas Media Network both negative, and centralized holding-group units taking 26 percent of reviewed spend. The Media Leader carries the second part of Nick Manning's argument that Publicis now functions as an aggregator rather than an agency group, and Luma's first State of Creative Professionals and AI report finds 81 percent of creative professionals using AI, with organizations adopting 4.3 tools and dropping three. Also today, Geico takes its brand characters into podcasts and entertainment, Officeworks moves its media account to PHD Melbourne without a pitch, FP7 McCann MENA and MullenLowe MENA merge, Power Digital buys two agencies, and Dentsu India opens a performance studio in Bengaluru.
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  Publicis Tops the Half, Coke's North America in Play 22.09.2026 5m

  COMvergence puts Publicis Media first in global new business for the first half of 2026 at 3.24 billion dollars in net billings, ahead of Omnicom Media and WPP Media, with centralized group units taking 26 percent of reviewed spend. Digiday reads Omnicom as the favorite for Coca-Cola's North American media on scale, while unsealed material in The New York Times case against OpenAI has publishers' lawyers arguing that alleged paywall circumvention undercuts a fair-use defense. Also, FP7 McCann MENA and MullenLowe MENA merge as McCann MENA, Richard Foster moves to block WPP's dismissal bid, and Pinterest launches visual search ads.
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  Brand Agents Land Inside ChatGPT Ads 21.09.2026 5m

  OpenAI is testing Sponsored Agents with select US advertisers, per TechRepublic, letting a ChatGPT ad click open a conversation with the brand's own agent, alongside Shopify and HubSpot tie-ups. Digiday argues Publicis is converting client fatigue with competitive reviews into new business, netting the PepsiCo win down to about $1.1 billion on Comvergence data, and Converse has apologized for two ads that social media users said evoked Klan symbolism, per Adweek. LIONS is also spreading Cannes across the calendar with new platforms in North America, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, according to Conference and Meetings World.
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  Dentsu takes Netflix across 22 EMEA markets 18.09.2026 6m

  Netflix has consolidated media planning and buying across 22 EMEA markets with Dentsu after a review that included WPP and Omnicom, Brand Spur reports, and Clean Creatives' latest F-List counts 1,321 agency and PR contracts with fossil-fuel companies, the most since 2021. Coca-Cola's Manolo Arroyo told Adweek's Brandweek the next media agency must bring creator, retail-media and sales-linked capabilities, while a Digiday analysis argues WPP is not the biggest loser of the PepsiCo and Coca-Cola shuffle. Also: the court unseals Judge Brinkema's full Google remedies opinion, Meta launches a creator-partnership hub, Target hires former Hilton CMO Mark Weinstein, and a Riyadh Lions Festival is set for December 2027.
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  Omnicom Won't Sugarcoat the PepsiCo Loss 11.09.2026 5m

  Omnicom CFO Phil Angelastro calls the PepsiCo loss "certainly a disappointment" at Goldman Sachs Communacopia, per Digiday, while Brand Spur, citing Ad Age, reports Coca-Cola is in talks with WPP, Omnicom and dentsu over its North America media. Andrew Robertson takes over Omnicom Advertising from the retiring Troy Ruhanen, afaqs and others report, and Amazon Ads adds ChatGPT inventory to its DSP in a managed pilot, per Digiday and Adweek. Also: AI-routed US ad spend forecast to pass a quarter by decade's end, new filings in the WPP rebate case, and agencies patching AI terms into existing contracts.
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  Omnicom's Creative Chief Retires, and Publicis Pays for Pepsi 10.09.2026 5m

  MediaPost reports Troy Ruhanen is retiring as head of Omnicom Advertising, with BBDO Worldwide chairman Andrew Robertson taking over effective immediately. Business Insider reports Publicis has withdrawn from Coca-Cola's global media pitch and is set to resign the North America account, valued by COMvergence at 805 million dollars, after winning PepsiCo's global media business. Also: OpenAI bars ads for rival image and audio generation tools inside ChatGPT, per The Information, and Storyboard18 examines why paying a creator for a Reel does not transfer the right to run it as advertising.