17525: IBM Reboots Advertising And Media, Boots WPP.

 

Advertising Age reported IBM named Stagwell its White holding company for creative duties, which will be co-handled by White advertising agencies Anomaly and Code and Theory.

 

Incumbent WPP White advertising agency Ogilvy declined to participate in the review, just as incumbent WPP Media declined to participate in an earlier media review that was won by Omnicom.

 

Surely serious behind-the-scenes politics persuaded WPP units to give up continuing roughly 32 years of service for IBM.

 

After all, Ogilvy just won Network of the Year at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, establishing its creative chops far exceed those of Anomaly and Code and Theory—or any White advertising agency in the Stagwell stink factory.

 

Ad Age headlined AI capability and speed won the business for Stagwell.

 

Huh? WPP boasts unmatched and unprecedented AI ingenuity. Plus, the corporate website declares WPP Production delivers content at speed and scale, blah blah blah.

 

Whatever true circumstances ignited the scenario, WPP probably now thinks IBM stands for Insane Business Massacre—or Immense Bowel Movement.

 

IBM hires Stagwell as lead creative partner—AI capability and speed won out

 

By Brian Bonilla

 

IBM has selected Stagwell as its new lead creative partner following a competitive review that ended the tech company’s roughly 32-year relationship with Ogilvy. The assignment comes as IBM seeks to sharpen its positioning around enterprise AI and accelerate its marketing efforts.

 

Stagwell’s Anomaly and Code and Theory will jointly lead the account, helping evolve IBM’s “Let’s Create Smarter Business” campaign across channels and geographies.

 

WPP’s Ogilvy previously stated that it declined to participate in the review, which was led by consultancy 3C Ventures.

 

IBM named Omnicom its global media agency earlier this year. In that review, WPP Media was the incumbent and declined to defend the business.

 

IBM marks a significant win for Stagwell, the 13th-largest agency company according to Ad Age Datacenter, which has been looking to prove its global chops. This year, Stagwell has secured key creative wins with Mondelēz International, Hershey and gaming entertainment company Allwyn AG.

 

The appointment comes as IBM expands its enterprise AI offerings with new products unveiled at its Think 2026 conference in May. The new agencies will focus on promoting some of IBM’s tools, such as Watsonx Orchestrate, which helps enterprises manage and deploy AI, and IBM Bob, an AI coding tool for businesses, along with brand positioning work.

 

The review prioritized three capabilities: strong creative, strong tech and an ability to help IBM “move in a lot more flexible way, with a lot more speed” than it “had in the past,” said Jonathan Adashek, IBM’s senior VP, marketing and communications.

 

“Flexibility is about taking advantage of opportunities that come quickly and really shortening the creative cycle for us,” Adashek said.

 

Those requirements reflect broad changes underway within IBM. The company has increasingly embraced AI across its own operations, positioning itself as “client zero” for its technology. Adashek said IBM has removed $4.5 billion in costs over the past three years, largely through AI and automation, and plans to remove another $1 billion this year.

 

Before the introduction of AI, IBM’s marketing creatives spent 80% of their time on derivative assets, he said, noting that the amount has been reduced “substantially” to below 40%.

 

A major factor in the decision was “The Machine,” Stagwell’s agentic operating system that connects with a client’s existing tools. Adashek said he was impressed that The Machine integrated insights from across the broader Stagwell network, citing The Harris Poll as an example. “The insights they can bring from other parts of the Stagwell organization—to not make it just an Anomaly and Code team … I think that’s essential,” Adashek said.

 

Just as important was Stagwell’s willingness to work within IBM’s own systems rather than require the client to adopt an agency-owned platform. “We’re going to work together with the client on enhancing their tech stack, rather than pushing them into a closed or walled garden on our part,” said Stagwell Chairman and CEO Mark Penn.

 

For IBM, that philosophy closely mirrors how it works with enterprise clients. “Our data is our data, and it’s sort of that special sauce that gives us the IBM flavor,” Adashek said.

 

Rather than dividing creative responsibilities among multiple shops, IBM wanted one lead partner capable of supporting the entire business.

 

“Fundamentally, as an organization, if we have too many different angles, then we’re not aligned at a central point. Before too long, people don’t understand what you’re trying to do, and then you stand for nothing,” Adashek said.

 

IBM expects the first work from the partnership to debut around the US Open in August, including new TV creative as part of a broader campaign spanning multiple channels. IBM is the official AI and cloud partner of the US Open.

 

The IBM creative pitch process

 

Adashek said that he attended early chemistry meetings and received reports after each pitch meeting. Neither he nor Penn sat through pitch meetings. Instead, IBM intentionally left the evaluation to the executives who will manage the relationship day to day.

 

“I wanted the team to be engaged,” Adashek said. “The team was so compelled by the content, by the approach, by the tools, they said this is the way we need to go.”

 

Penn said his own role was limited to reviewing work behind the scenes and ensuring that the agencies had the right mix of capabilities.

 

“I’ve been around enough to know that this is never about the CEOs,” Penn said. “It’s about the people on the account team.”

17524: All Day I Dream About Sacks.

MediaPost reported Omnicom won the estimated $560 million global media account for adidas, beating Publicis Groupe and incumbent WPP in a competitive shootout.

 

WPP CEO Cindy Rose should probably start looking for some running shoes. Ditto lots of WPP Media drones soon to be sacked.

 

Omnicom Wins $560 Million Adidas Media

 

By Steve McClellan

 

Last week Omnicom left Cannes with a total of 160 Lions. This week it collected an arguably more lucrative prize: the global media account for German athletic footwear and apparel giant adidas, sources confirm.  

 

Omnicom Media Group agency PHD will lead the account. 

 

Adidas’s annual media expenditures are estimated at $560 million by agency research firm COMvergence. 

 

For the last eight years adidas has worked with WPP agencies. Mediacom won the account in 2018 after a global consolidation review.  

 

WPP and Publicis are said to have pitched for the adidas business. 

 

Neither adidas nor Omnicom representatives returned queries seeking comment before this posting. 

17523: On Life—And Lifetime Achievement—In Adland.

MediaPost spotlighted Susan Credle, who the trade publication identified as Interpublic Global Creative Advisor—despite IPG’s erasure after being acquired by Omnicom.

 

Oddly enough, Credle’s LinkedIn profile displays her present experience as Interpublic Global Creative Advisor and Omnicom Creative Advisor.

 

Perhaps Credle is a fractional Planetary Creative Advisor. Or maybe she’s also in limbo, waiting for Omnicom to sort through restructurings, redundancies, and RIFs resulting from the acquisition.

 

Credle came to Cannes to collect the Lion of St. Mark lifetime achievement award.

 

Yet now Credle admits being uncertain about her next work-life stage.

 

That’s life in Adland today.

 

Credle At Cannes: ‘Fast And Cheap’ Equals Ad Pollution

 

By Steve McClellan

 

Ad agency veteran and current Interpublic global creative advisor Susan Credle told a Cannes Lions audience Monday morning that while there’s been much talk lately that consumers care less about brands these days, maybe it’s the industry that needs to care more about them. 

 

Credle, this year’s recipient of the Lion of St. Mark lifetime achievement award, said, “We’re in a slightly weird place right now,” where all the focus on AI and technology has led the industry to focus a bit less on brand building.  

 

“Fast and cheap,” she said, amounts to so much “ad pollution.” Refocusing on brand building, she added, is perhaps the best way to regain consumer trust. 

 

On stage with Paul Kemp, Cannes Lions Chief Content Officer, Credle talked about her formative years and passion for cheerleading and acting in high school. She was declared “biggest flirt” during her high school years, which she interpreted as “enjoying being around people.” Cheerleading, she added, may have been her first copywriting job because it involved writing cheers promoting a team and urging them to win.  

 

In college she learned quickly that journalism—at least the stick-to-facts kind—wasn't a passion of hers. She was steered to the advertising department where she could focus on a blend of “creativity and outcomes.” 

 

In 1985 she headed to New York City “with a suitcase and a dream.” She landed an entry level job at BBDO (filling in for receptionists who were on bathroom breaks), and ended up staying for more than two decades. 

 

At BBDO she landed on the Mars account where she had the audacious idea of killing off the M&M characters because she believed they were boring. That idea didn’t fly and she (and her art director partner Steve Rutter) then proposed developing the characters into a comedic ensemble with distinct and funny personalities. The problem there—no budget to do that for TV, at least at first. Instead the characters were merchandised and their personalities began to blossom via quips on T shirts.  

 

The characters’ popularity took off, and they were developed and integrated into TV campaigns led by Credle and Rutter. At one point NBC wanted to have the characters introduce its Thursday night lineup. It was at that point, Credle realized that the characters had entered the cultural zeitgeist. “Hollywood came calling us,” she noted, not the other way around.  

 

Later this year Credle will be leaving Interpublic for a new chapter. For now, Credle said she’s not sure what’s next. Stay tuned.  

17522: WPP CEO Delivers Award-Winning BS.

 

More About Advertising spotlighted WPP at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, reporting VML and Ogilvy—White advertising agencies within the global flaming dumpster—scored significant recognition and trophies.

 

MAA reckoned WPP would have earned a Creative Company of the Year/Holding Company of the Year threepeat if the dubious award hadn’t been nixed.

 

The hoopla prompted WPP CEO Cindy Rose to uncharacteristically comment on creativity, including the following bullshit:

 

“Creativity is our superpower—it’s what builds brand differentiation and trust for our clients. WPP is home to the world’s most iconic agency brands, and this year at Cannes Lions that showed: two creative networks in the top three, the number one PR agency, the most awarded media group for a second year, and so much exceptional work that came from our creative, media, production, and PR agencies working together.

 

“This is our integrated model in action, delivering growth for clients. I couldn’t be prouder of our talented people across the world, and I want to give a massive thank you to our extraordinary clients who partner with us to deliver brave, ambitious work.”

 

Interesting that Rose gushed about PR, as reports indicate the entire practice might be pruned from the worldwide network.

 

To declare, “WPP is home to the world’s most iconic agency brands…” constitutes propagandistic puffery at its finest. Hell, many of the most iconic agency brands were erased over the years by the White holding company—before it changed to a single White operating company.

 

Finally, to say, “This is our integrated model in action…” is revisionist rhetoric. The awarded work was produced before Rose arrived, far preceding the Roserrection integrated model—which, incidentally, looks like a Hindenburg being built in fire-filled flight.

 

If Cannes presented a Lion for CEO bullshit, Rose would be a serious contender—although she’d have tough competition from all others leading holding companies.

 

It’s WPP top again at Cannes

 

By Stephen Foster

 

Last year WPP won Creative Company of the Year at Cannes Lions – and the organisers promptly retired the award as it seemed to reflect entries as much as anything else and, anyway, the wheels were clearly coming off WPP. It was just about CEO Mark Read’s last public appearance in the role.

 

It [would] have won this year too had there been such an award with Ogilvy winning network of the year with 81 Lions including three Grand Prix. Publicis’ Le Pub was agency of the year, WPP’s VML also scoring strongly while Rethink Toronto was independent agency of the year and Heineken creative brand of brand of the year.

 

Britain’s Mother won the Film grand Prix, still the highlight of the festival for many, for Anthropic’s Claude.

 

Ogilvy CCO Liz Taylor says: “We come to Cannes with one goal in mind: to proudly take the stage each night with our clients and celebrate the power of creativity in every corner of the world. To affirm their belief in ideas to solve any problem, overcome any challenge, and drive the impact they aspire to create.

 

“I am incredibly proud of Ogilvy’s performance this week, but more than anything, I’m proud of how we continue to show up for and with the biggest and boldest brands. To shape culture, inspire communities, reimagine entire categories, and to chart the future that we’re all, always, stepping into.”

 

WPP CEO Cindy Rose says: “Creativity is our superpower – it’s what builds brand differentiation and trust for our clients. WPP is home to the world’s most iconic agency brands, and this year at Cannes Lions that showed: two creative networks in the top three, the number one PR agency, the most awarded media group for a second year, and so much exceptional work that came from our creative, media, production and PR agencies working together.

 

“This is our integrated model in action, delivering growth for clients. I couldn’t be prouder of our talented people across the world, and I want to give a massive thank you to our extraordinary clients who partner with us to deliver brave, ambitious work.”

 

Should have earned a few more years of quasi-independence for the big two creative brands anyway. VML, a mash-up of JWT, Y&R and Wunderman, has done remarkably well.

17521: Dentsu Difference Disappearing & Disappointing.

 

MediaPost reported from Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on Dentsu Global CEO Takeshi Sano, who admitted facing the same problems as other holding companies—which he hopes to address with the same solutions including agility and adaptability, simplifying the portfolio, and client-centric focus. Oh, and he made references to AI integration too.

 

Things are bad in Adland when the only non-White holding company appears to be more vanilla than the White holding companies.

 

Dentsu Challenges: Pace Of Change, Complexity, Sameness, Says CEO Sano

 

By Steve McClellan

 

Dentsu’s Takeshi Sano notched his first major industry appearance as Global CEO on the Cannes Lions main stage Tuesday in an interview with CNBC’s Julia Boorstin.  

 

Dentsu’s major challenges, he said, are similar to the broader industry, including the pace of change, complexity, and competitive differentiation. 

 

Dentsu, he said, tries to remain agile in the face of constant change and has sought to simplify its business to make it more accessible to clients globally. 

 

Client stickiness hasn’t been a problem in Japan where many clients have been doing business with the firm for more than 100 years. In part Sano attributes the firm’s ability to sustain such long-term relationships via a culture focused on “client centricity.” 

 

Boorstin noted that such relationships aren’t common outside of Japan and wondered if one of Dentsu’s goals was generate “century clients” outside of the country. “Hopefully,” Sano responded. “If we focus on client results, we can achieve long-term relationships.” 

 

Asked how he is thinking about AI and innovation, Sano technology expands possibilities. The challenge for companies and talent is selecting and applying the right possibilities to optimal benefit. 

 

“AI can’t define the future, or identify issues or goals,” he said. Those areas will remain for humans to grapple with. 

17520: On Registration-Only Exclusivity At Cannes.

 

Advertising Age reported on the increased registration-only events at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which especially frustrated newer attendees denied access beyond velvet ropes.

 

Um, Cannes has always embraced exclusivity—marginalizing people based on status at White advertising agencies, country of origin, gender, sexual identity, race and ethnicity, etc.

 

Hell, even the Omnicom Inclusion Breakfast was an exclusive affair.

 

As for registration-only issues, don’t forget the initiatives to ban registered sex offenders.

 

Registration-only events make Cannes feel less democratic and overly programmed

 

By E.J. Schultz, Ewan Larkin, and Brian Bonilla

 

To thrive at Cannes this year, you needed two things: a fan and your name on countless registration lists. It was the hottest Cannes in memory and also perhaps the most exclusive one.

 

While the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has seen a steady rise in roped-off events, this year it seemed to reach a tipping point. The beach and harbor were again dominated by activations that required registration, including Stagwell’s Sport Beach, Amazon Port, Spotify Beach and others. This year, there was a noticeable encroachment inland, with multiple cafes overtaken by vendors and agencies, which used them to conduct invite-only programming or hold client meetings, effectively shutting them off from average festival-goers.

 

One big change from last year: Caffe Roma, a normally welcoming spot in the shadow of the Palais, was overtaken by Creative Artists Agency, where people guarding the entrance turned away anyone not on the list.

 

“People without a pay-to-play space are having to get real inventive about where to eat and meet this year, given the sprawling nature of branded spaces—they’ve exploded,” said Oliver McAteer, head of development and partner at Mischief @ No Fixed Address. “It feels like no inch of Cannes has been left untouched. Quiet restaurants you could sneak away to and take a meeting or grab a rare bite are now an AI firm you’ve never heard of. AI is likely the reason I am sunburned.”

 

The situation added more fire to the long-running debate over whether Cannes Lions has lost its appeal as a community gathering for creatives of all stripes, especially those without industry connections.

 

Take it from Fernando Machado, the chief brand officer of Chipotle, who has been coming to Cannes since he was a rising marketer at Unilever. “It was just the Palais,” he said in an interview this week, referring to the festival’s traditional home venue. “I would buy two cereal bars, two Gatorades” and “be there for the day.” He referred to this year’s festival as being filled with RSVP lists and Cannes “bouncers.”

 

“It makes it less democratic, right?” Machado said. “I’ve been in the industry for long now, and I know a lot of people, so I think it’s easy for me to get in.” But Fernando from 15 years ago would likely be shut out, he added.

 

Leeann Leahy, CEO of The Via Agency, shared a similar perspective. “It feels more like a ‘No, you can’t’ festival with all of its closed doors and over-programmed venues. And I have always loved the discovery of this festival,” Leahy said, noting that it took her “an hour to find a cafe that wasn’t taken over by some brand somewhere.”

 

Frances Webster, CEO of Walrus, said she had to take a breakfast meeting at the Gutter Bar, which is typically popular for late-night drinks, because so many Cannes restaurants were rented out this year.

 

WPP’s VML took over Beryte, a Lebanese restaurant, while tech brand InMobi took over another eatery to promote Glance, an intelligent shopping agent.

 

There was also some disgruntlement about the Carlton Hotel, which often serves as a watering hole for delegates beginning at night and extending into the early hours of the morning. Attendees reported being turned away by security unless they were meeting with somebody already inside, and voiced complaints about the hotel charging $100 per person to sit at a table. Tom Morrissy, chief growth officer of independent media agency Noble People, said such tactics hurt “the history and spirit of the festival.”

 

How the scorching heat affected Cannes

 

Of course, with scorching temperatures, drinking late into the night was not always the best idea. A historic heat wave gripped France for most of the week. The most common sight on the Croisette: People draped in event lanyards and wristbands holding fans. Nicola Mendelsohn, head of Meta’s global business group, summed it up quite nicely at a panel on WPP’s rooftop near the end of the week, suggesting her Oura ring “thinks I’m dead.”

 

The heatwave “made every indoor session a refuge and outdoor activations a genuine endurance test,” Lindsay Slaby, founder of marketing consultancy Sunday Dinner, wrote in her Cannes recap for clients. She noted that it “probably contributed to the intimacy premium: small dinners, air-conditioned villas, the sessions with 21 people at the art hotel beat everything happening at Croisette scale.”

 

She also observed that the “old Cannes energy was genuinely porous,” referring to past festivals of “creative directors running into clients at the Gutter Bar at 2 a.m.,” and “serendipitous collisions that turned into briefs.”

 

The corporate sprawl beyond the Palais is a physical manifestation of how Cannes continues to evolve into a business conference as much as it is a creativity festival. Ad tech players, who began descending on Cannes years ago, are now joined by a growing number of consultancies. Boston Consulting Group upped its Cannes presence starting about four years ago and this year ran its BCG House along the Croisette, with programming on topics such as organizational transformation and the path from CMO to CEO.

 

“Marketing is one of our biggest topics for us commercially,” said Jessica Apotheker, BCG’s CMO, managing director and senior partner. “It’s just a great opportunity to engage with marketing leaders. We will share some more thought leadership, connect with the right people, and also connect with the technical system.”

 

Cannes Lions itself is leaning into executive involvement. For the second year in a row, it hosted a Global CEO Forum. This year, the closed-door session at the Carlton ran on the festival’s opening day and was “strictly limited to 50 personally invited global CEOs,” according to its website, with McKinsey listed as a “lead insight partner.”

 

Still, there does appear to be a concerted effort to preserve the festival’s original creative spirit. Ciaran McCarthy, VP of brand and global advertising at Microsoft, told Ad Age on Monday that his whole team was in the South of France this week, spending lots of time walking the work and attending award shows.

 

“I hope others are doing the same,” McCarthy said. “It’d be a shame to come here and not.”

17519: On WPP Priorities At Cannes And Beyond.

 

Advertising Age reported how WPP CEO Cindy Rose is spending her time at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, prioritizing huddling with clients and investors over public events.

 

This semi-mirrors Rose’s global agenda; that is, she’s primarily focused on clients and shareholders versus employees—a worldwide community Wikipedia currently records as 100,000 humans. Losing clients and shareholders poses a big problem. Losing employees, not so much.

 

Besides, the single White operating company won’t threepeat as Holding Company of the Year/Creative Company of the Year—but only because the dubious award was nixed versus WPP is now recognized as a death-spiraling flaming dumpster.

 

Cindy Rose prioritizes clients and investors over public events during her first Cannes as WPP CEO

 

By Ewan Larkin and E.J. Schultz

 

Few executives have walked into Cannes Lions this year with quite as much baggage as Cindy Rose. Though the WPP CEO has helped orchestrate some momentum in the new business arena in her first nine months, she still helms a company working through a major restructuring, a string of client losses and a fall to fourth-ranked agency company.

 

Rose made her debut at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity as WPP’s CEO without much fanfare, opting for few public speaking appearances and spending more time tucked away meeting clients and investors while explaining her turnaround plan.

 

Perhaps her most important meeting was with Manuel Arroyo, the Coca-Cola Co. executive VP and global chief marketing officer, who also met with Arthur Sadoun, Publicis Groupe’s chairman and CEO, during the festival, according to a person familiar with the matter.

 

WPP is battling Publicis for the beverage giant’s media, data and technology business in most global markets outside of the U.S. The review, which is in its early stages, marks a high-stakes moment for Rose, as Coke incumbent WPP seeks to ward off further encroachment by Publicis, which took the North America media business from WPP in early 2025.

 

Arroyo did not tip his hand on which agency might have the advantage.

 

“We have a lot of confidence today in WPP,” he said in an interview at Cannes. “We also are seeing reasons why we should have a lot of confidence in Publicis based on the work in the U.S.” He credited Rose for bringing “a lot of new and great thinking” and “an increased focus on data, technology and AI.”

 

Coke’s marketing priorities moving forward include more emphasis on retail media and influencer marketing, he said.

 

Along with putting on an investor relations event atop the Hôtel Martinez, WPP’s home base for the week, Rose also hosted more than 30 consultants and intermediaries at a private terrace gathering. And she interviewed Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and Spotify co-CEO Gustav Söderström at WPP’s Stream event, Ad Age confirmed with WPP.

 

Her focus on clients—more than 50 of whom she met with privately—prompted her to opt out of a speech she had been scheduled to give at the Palais. Rose’s agenda also included a Thursday night client dinner.

 

A WPP spokesperson said Rose was not available for an interview during the festival.

 

On the heels of WPP announcing an agentic partnership with Amazon Web Services, Rose made a public appearance for a luncheon at Amazon Port, where she discussed a set of “trust principles” she released at the start of the festival. Asked about that timing on the panel, Rose said that “consumer trust in brands is at an all-time low, and trust in agencies isn’t much better,” so it felt like the right time to “put a stake in the ground” on how WPP operates.

 

One of WPP’s principles is about clients owning and controlling their data, a point Rose emphasized during her time in Cannes with AWS. “Your data and your insights as a brand is your biggest source of asymmetric competitive advantage, and I cannot, for the life of me, understand why CMOs would share that with anyone,” she said.

 

Rose later spoke about WPP’s marketing operating system, WPP Open, and said it is designed to give clients access to data insights and new technology without surrendering control. Her remarks come as research firms have warned that marketers risk becoming overly dependent on agency-owned AI platforms.

 

“It’s amazing to me how many of my CMO clients are willing to sign up to data solutions that lock them in,” Rose said. She added: “I want my clients to stay with me because we’re delivering superior growth, not because we’ve created some structural friction.”

17518: On WPP Media Global Ranking & Worldwide Tanking.

 

Advertising Age reported WPP Media maintained its lead global ranking; however, the trade publication foresees the White media firm losing its top position as Adland continues to dramatically churn.

 

Ironically, WPP Media could benefit from PR, promotion, and advertising—disciplines diminished in the WPP worldwide flaming dumpster—to hype its fuzzy success, suspect capabilities, and questionable innovations.

 

WPP Media clings to the lead in Comvergence’s global ranking, but likely not for long

 

By Lindsay Rittenhouse

 

WPP Media maintained its position as the top agency group worldwide in global media billings last year, but it is slipping from the leaderboard, according to Comvergence’s 2025 Global Billings and Market Share Report.

 

The holding company led the pack with 13% market share and $63.9 billion in 2025 global media billings, but that’s down from the 14.2% share it captured in 2024. Publicis Media is not far behind, posting the highest growth rate among the holding companies, with a 12.8% rise to $62.4 billion in global billings last year, per the report.

 

Omnicom Media Group ranked third with $48.5 billion in global media billings last year, which represented a 5.5% increase from 2024. However, Comvergence flagged that the report did not combine the media billings of the newly merged Omnicom Media Group and Interpublic Group of Cos., as the deal closed in late November. A combined Omnicom Media Group would have had $75.6 billion in global billings, according to the report, landing it well ahead of WPP Media.

 

Among agency networks, Omnicom’s OMD led with $26.9 billion in total media billings, up 1.7% from 2024. WPP’s EssenceMediacom came in second place with $23.3 billion, a 3.9% decline in global billings from 2024, while its Mindshare ranked third with a decrease of 5.5% to $20.5 billion in total 2025 billings.

 

Publicis Media’s Zenith and Starcom rounded out the top five agency networks, per the report, posting the highest growth rates among the rivals, at 11.4% to $17.2 billion and 9.5% to $17.18 billion in total billings, respectively.

 

The report represents 55% of global media spend, which Comvergence estimated to be at $478 billion across 49 markets, up 4.6% from $457 billion in 2024. It also covered 107 independent media agencies, which collectively account for 12% of global market share, according to the report, representing $32 billion in total 2025 billings. Horizon Media US was the largest independent agency worldwide with $7.4 billion in 2025 billings, according to Comvergence.

17517: On The Challenges For Gaining Entry To Cannes.

 

Advertising Age reported entries dropped over 25% for Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

 

There’s no data to indicate how the value of creativity has globally dropped in Adland—but the figure probably far exceeds 25%.

 

Of course, Ad Age’s examination doesn’t highlight the exclusivity of Cannes, whereby a limited community of privileged advertising agencies participate in a closed popularity contest.

 

A stricter submission process likely had 0% impact on Cannes cliquishness.

 

However, the revised requirements surely adversely affected the underrepresentation of non-White advertising agencies—but don’t expect Cannes to offer percentages and/or confirmation data.

 

Cannes Lions entries drop more than 25% as stricter rules kick in

 

By Tim Nudd

 

Award submissions to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity dropped more than 25% this year, a decrease due at least in part to the introduction of stricter eligibility and verification rules for entrants in the wake of last year’s cheating scandal.

 

The festival received 20,050 entries from 92 countries this year, down from 26,900 from 96 countries in 2025, organizers said Saturday. That is nearly a 25.5% drop.

 

In releasing the numbers, festival leaders pointed to a stricter entry process aimed at rebuilding confidence in the awards process. The festival introduced various measures this year to strengthen oversight and ensure submitted work can withstand greater scrutiny. The new rules include a new fact-checking process, stricter client sign-off and bans on agencies that submit fake or manipulated work.

 

The new process makes entering more challenging and time-consuming, according to agencies. The changes were instituted after the festival was rocked last year when multiple award-winning campaigns came under fire for AI-manipulated case studies, unverifiable campaign results and more.

 

“We have been working closely with our international community over the last year on what are considered and significant steps,” Simon Cook, CEO of Lions, said in a statement. “Together, we understand that these strengthened standards are not designed to restrict creativity, but to fortify it—ensuring breakthrough work gets the recognition it deserves, while preserving the integrity that makes the recognition meaningful and enduring.”

 

Other factors are likely at play in the decrease as well, such as entry fees becoming more prohibitive at agencies that are trying to contain costs and even having layoffs.

 

The festival released other entry data as well. Work submitted by brands accounted for 10% of entries this year, up from 8% last year. Independent agencies made up almost one-third of all entries, the festival said.