Credit: Blaz Erzetic via Unsplash
Omnicom, now the world's largest advertising group after the IPG takeover, is reshaping its portfolio around media, data and AI.
The company, deep into cutting $US1.5 billion in costs, is moving to grow media as a share of its business.
And Omnicom is repositioning from a traditional agency holding group to an outcomes-driven business, according to a briefing of analysts at an investor day.
The company's answer to rising "complexity" and accelerating "fragmentation" across media is to be a partner that connects everything.
Post-takeover, the portfolio by revenue is roughly 55% faster-growing "interconnected" businesses — media, data, CRM, commerce and consulting. Traditional advertising sits about 18%. PR, health and experiential make up the rest.
Media is growing as a share of the total business.
"What the merger allowed me to do... is to reshape the portfolio," CEO John Wren said when briefing analysts.
Wren described creativity as "perishable".
"So it's very important to have the best and the brightest, but it's a lot harder for them to come up with the ideas that resonate with consumers," he said.
Omnicom has positioned Acxiom's Real ID — covering 2.6 billion individuals and 98% of US adults — as a differentiating asset it says competitors cannot replicate. The Flywheel acquisition adds commerce and retail media data on top.
Together, Omnicom says, they connect media exposure to purchase behaviour, shifting the conversation from campaign performance to enterprise investment.
The company presents AI not as a standalone offering but as the operating layer across everything, moving from "tools to agents" through its Omni platform. Omnicom says 70,000 users are generating millions of AI outputs per month.
On pricing, Omnicom is signalling a gradual shift to outcome-based models. Wren placed it in historical context when briefing market analysts.
"During my career, I've seen it going from commissions, which we loved because all you had to do was spend money for us to make money, then it went to fee for service," Wren said.
"We still have a few commission clients, believe it or not.
"It is very early days. We'd be very comfortable if we can come to an agreed target for some kind of a deliverable, however you want to define success.
"That requires some thought, some knowledge, both on the client side and on our side as to what are the goals and objectives we're trying to solve for. Then we're certainly prepared to put skin in the game."
Daryl Simm, president and COO, told analysts the business has been reshaped in response to structural shifts in marketing, how brands grow, how dollars are invested and how value is created.
"Importantly, … expanding the role that we as Omnicom play in our clients' businesses, providing new opportunities for more strategic solutions that deliver value to clients while improving the quality and the durability of our revenue model," he said.
"Complexity is rising, fragmentation is accelerating, and the winners will be the partners.
"The number of platforms that marketers engage consumers is growing, and each has its own data and its own measurement.
"Media and commerce systems are disconnected from one another, and this is most prevalent in some of the fastest-growing parts of the ecosystem.
"Retail Media is a clear example of this. Spending from an industry standpoint is on track to reach $69 billion in the United States alone.
"Globally, spending is distributed across more than 500 retail networks, each with its own closed data systems, its own buying tools, and its own measurement framework.
"Connected TV is another. It's more intuitive to all of us, I think. Streaming now approaches half of total US TV viewing, and that consumption is across dozens of ad-supported platforms, including Disney+, Prime, Paramount+, Netflix, the list goes on.
"Each with different formats, different data signals, and reporting standards. Even prime sports, or even prime premium live sports … which not so long ago was concentrated amongst a small group of broadcasters … are now distributed across multiple rights holders and streaming services."
Deepti Prakash, chief operating officer of Omnicom Advertising Group, said her focus is ensuring distinctive content and experiences for clients by integrating Omnicom's data, identity and Omni platform with creative and content production capabilities.
"To win in today's media environment, brands not only need more content than ever, they also need creativity that cuts through the noise," she said.
"Essentially, the system is only as good as the creative that fuels it. The new Omnicom has deep capabilities to create distinctive content and optimise it for clients across every channel and market. It starts with creating more of the right content across an expanding media landscape."
AI is lowering the barriers to creation and distribution, Prakash said, making it harder for brands to stand out.
"This is where creativity comes in," she said.
"Great creative ideas help brands break through the AI slop. They create and capture new demand. They open new ways to go to market.
"Great creative builds stronger brands, and stronger brands drive disproportionate growth. We know this because we've been studying it for decades.
"We offer clients the deepest bench of creative talent in the industry and are the most awarded creative network of the past decade across major creative shows."
Omnicom's creative talent now works with the same intelligence tools and AI that underpin media strategies and content production workflows, Prakash said.
"The same intelligence guides media investment, creative ideation, and content production to create more connected and effective work for clients.
"What once used to take months now happens in days, and what once took days now happens in hours.
"This infrastructure does more than improve efficiency. It expands our role with clients. When we scale with their needs across more brands, markets, and channels, the economics of our relationship change.
"When AI-enabled production is paired with continuous media optimisation, the conversation shifts from the cost of assets to the value of outcomes."
Prakash outlined how AI creative agents help evaluate and refine the messaging after teams develop ideas. Production teams then bring the ideas to life through original craft and scale with AI.
Once the work is produced, AI governance agents, overseen by human talent, ensure that every variation stays true to the brand.
After deployment, systems analyse creative performance, identifying patterns and what resonates and what drives action, and evolve creative continuously based on performance — always with oversight from expert talent.
"The impacts are tangible," she said. "In the last year alone, we've been able to increase full funnel impressions by more than 30% in most markets globally on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
"We've also had double-digit increases in key buying actions through our right target, right time, right message marketing."
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