Virginia Hyland.
Virginia Hyland, CEO & Commercial Partner, Squad M&A.
"You can slash costs overnight — but if you slash culture, you slash profit. Marketers know the difference."
2025 will go down as one of the most jarring years the Australian advertising industry has ever experienced. The shockwaves from the Omnicom–IPG merger have hit this market with a level of speed and blunt force that feels unprecedented. What was positioned globally as a strategic alignment of capability and scale has landed locally as a cold, clinical restructure — leaders marched off floors without warning, heritage agency brands retired overnight, and hundreds of layoffs delivered with the emotional indifference of a corporate surgery. Many weren't even given the dignity of saying goodbye to their teams. Culture wasn't given room to breathe. Shock became the dominant emotion.
What is often missed in global M&A strategy decks is this simple truth: culture is not a "soft factor" — it is the hard driver of profitability. You can merge systems, compress P&Ls and consolidate real estate, but if you fail to merge people — their beliefs, motivations and sense of belonging — the value of the deal erodes from day one. In Australia, where agency–client relationships rely heavily on senior proximity, category understanding and human connection, culture is not decorative. It is commercial.
When respected leaders disappear abruptly, when communication is sparse or scripted, and when teams feel expendable, belief collapses. And belief is the bloodstream of an agency. Belief in the mission. Belief in leadership. Belief in the future. Without it, people shift from proactive to defensive. They protect rather than imagine. They comply rather than challenge. Productivity drops. Creativity dulls. High-value talent exits. Clients sense the wobble. And the very profitability the merger aimed to improve begins slipping away.
Australia feels this harder than most. Marketers in this market expect continuity, senior strategic partnership and local autonomy — not offshore hierarchy or diluted leadership lines. The retirement of legendary agency brands like DDB, FCB, MullenLowe, DDB Needham and others has only amplified client anxiety. These weren't just names; they were symbols of people, philosophy and creative legacy. When these identities disappear overnight, marketers ask: Who is steering my business now? Who holds the knowledge? Who is my stabiliser when the market tightens?
Marketers are not fearing consolidation; they are fearing the loss of the people who understand their business best. In hyper-competitive categories, even a momentary fracture in campaign continuity can hand advantage to a rival. Challenger networks and independents are already circling, offering what CMOs want most right now: stability, senior talent, and human connection that feels constant rather than fragile.
Yet, if the merged global entity gets cultural alignment right — if leadership commits to transparency, protects client-facing teams, articulates a vision people can believe in, and allows local markets to maintain autonomy — the potential upside is significant. Unified tech, deeper specialist capabilities, stronger investment in retail media, ecommerce and UX, and cross-market integration can create real value for Australian brands. But scale only works when it is matched with humanity. Culture is not a cost centre; it is the commercial engine.
This moment is also accelerating the rise of independent agencies. While global networks focus inward on integration and restructuring, independents with strong leadership and investment backing are stepping confidently into larger remits. They are presenting themselves not as "alternatives" but as full-service partners capable of delivering end-to-end marketing results. Their advantage? Visibility. Consistency. Leadership you can see. A cultural identity clients can actually feel. With capital behind them, independents can scale tech, data, commerce and content at speed — without losing soul. And in a year where so much of the industry feels faceless, the power of a name, a person and a culture becomes a competitive weapon.
The Power of Collaboration in 2026
One of the most important lessons of 2025 is that the most effective work — and the most resilient results — come from marketer–agency partnerships where both sides operate as one integrated team. CMOs want partners who anticipate, challenge, guide and deliver. They want collaboration grounded in shared KPIs, shared accountability and shared ambition. Agencies that embed deeply into the marketer's business, not orbit around it, will outperform in 2026.
This is where both independents and holding groups have opportunity — if they commit to behaviour, not just structure. Marketers don't want horizontality as a diagram; they want it lived. They want teams who communicate openly, protect continuity, and bring human connection alongside capability.
What Marketers Will Demand in 2026
Looking ahead, the events of 2025 have crystallised what CMOs will demand in 2026:
Yes, they will expect buying power.
Yes, they will expect efficiency.
Yes, they will expect integrated capability.
But above all, they will demand:
results, continuity, and trusted partners who are human.
Agencies — global or independent — who can demonstrate cultural stability, protect senior talent, communicate transparently and deliver commercial outcomes will win. Those who behave as though culture is optional will lose both people and clients.
2026 will belong to the agencies who understand the simplest truth in business: trust is cultural before it is commercial.