Advertising Age reported Omnicom offset its Acura creative business loss by landing the IBM global media account.
Given the Acura account was creative, any fired drones are unlikely to benefit from the IBM media acquisition.
Then again, IBM is conducting a creative review and prefers to consolidate its marketing partners roster. And incumbent White advertising agency Ogilvy is declining to defend its 32-year relationship. So, Omnicom could eventually pick up IBM creative duties too.
No IBM technology exists to compute, coordinate, and clarify the Corporate Cultural Collusion, conspiring, and chaos ahead.
Omnicom wins IBM’s global media account
By Ewan Larkin and Brian Bonilla
IBM has awarded Omnicom its global media account following a review, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
Omnicom Media referred calls for comment to IBM, which could not be immediately reached. The review was handled by Michael Kassan’s 3C Ventures, which wasn’t immediately available for comment. Publicis Groupe was a finalist in the review, Ad Age has learned. The holding company did not return a request for comment.
IBM’s global media spend totaled $190 million in 2025, down sharply from $330 million in 2024, according to COMvergence estimates. Initiative, which is now part of Omnicom following its acquisition of Interpublic Group of Cos., had been handling IBM’s media business in EMEA, according to COMvergence.
WPP Media, the incumbent, declined to defend the media account. And WPP’s Ogilvy, IBM’s longtime creative partner, is not participating in the tech giant’s ongoing creative review.
“Ogilvy has made the decision not to participate in the upcoming creative RFP for IBM,” Ogilvy said in a statement shared with Ad Age in March. “We are immensely proud of our 32-year partnership, a tenure nearly unrivaled in this industry. Together, we have built one of the world’s most iconic brands through campaigns that defined eras of technological progress … We celebrate our shared history and wish the IBM team continued success.”
IBM stunned the ad world on May 24, 1994, when it summarily fired more than 40 ad agencies and consolidated its then-$500 million global ad account at Ogilvy in what at the time was the biggest-ever account switch. Ogilvy resigned the Microsoft Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp. accounts to take on IBM.
IBM’s advertising and promotional expenses totaled $1.129 billion in 2025, down from $1.173 billion in 2024, according to its annual filing. It reported advertising and promotional spending of $977 million back in 1994; that figure included spending beyond the advertising account that landed at Ogilvy.
IBM adds to a run of media wins at Omnicom that also includes On and Delta Air Lines—retained after the holding company deployed a bespoke team to handle the account, as first reported by Ad Age’s Agency Review Tracker—and Raymour & Flanigan. It also recently lost the U.S. media account for SC Johnson to WPP, and its business with CVS Health, Bristol Myers Squibb and Gilead Sciences is facing review.
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