As we invite you to join us and soak up the conversation on stage, in town hall discussions, and in the hallways of the JW Marriott Desert Ridge, here’s a breakdown of five themes impacting the world of media agencies.

Deepening AI impact on media agencies across so many sectors

I just attended Advertising Week last week, and among the vast amount of content, the most mentioned buzzword was AI. There’s a good reason for that. Government agencies everywhere are looking for ways to use AI as a means to streamline operations, free up staff to think bigger and better, and generate ideas at unprecedented levels.

AI has also changed the scope of agency efforts into much larger missions. Known’s Sketic platform provides a perfect example of what started as a way to better corral data and turned into an independent agency’s secret weapon.

But in the midst of AI, the agency landscape is littered with potential pitfalls and pitfalls, not the least of which is the erosion of entry-level positions, which will likely lead to a shortage of mid-level talent as today’s entry-level staff move up into the upper echelons. Tim Ringel, founder of Meet the People, also discusses how to solve regulatory and privacy issues, and warns of the dangers of overusing AI leading to homogeneity in creating solutions for clients.

Finally, in just one year, search has been completely turned upside down by not just the big AI companies, but the OG of search, Google. Google’s AI brief ushered in the era of zero-click search. Wpromote’s Christine Schrader will address this very topic at the summit.

Creators and influencers go from trend to stake

Although still mostly human, for now it is creators and their cousins, influencers, who are doing the most to overturn traditional notions of the purchase funnel. And they continue to exert external influence on how media agencies plan their clients’ marketing plans.

As Digiday’s Kimeko McCoy wrote last month, marketers are increasing their spending on influencer marketing—eMarketer’s latest influencer forecast predicts influencer marketing spending in the U.S. will exceed $10 billion this year. When Unilever announced that it would invest half of its media budget into social media and work with 20x more influencers, you know it’s the cornerstone of its business.

There is now a need to organize, and holding companies are taking notice and buying up independent companies, best exemplified by Publicis’ acquisition of Captive 8 this year and Influencial last year. Influencer Jenny Penich explains the magnitude of the change and best practices for harnessing the power of this marketing channel.

Independent companies continue to innovate and generate growth in an era of consolidation

Considering how big and heavy-handed holding companies can sometimes look and act, it’s not that far-fetched to expect well-run independent media agencies to do pretty well. And since the current wave of industry consolidation took hold last December with Omnicom’s move to IPG, nearly every analyst and most business development executives expect Holdco’s obsession with size and scale to steadily drive medium to large customers out of Holdco.

In other words, 2025 will be the year of the independent, with a wave of consolidation (from Havas and Horizon Media’s joint venture to Brainlabs’ acquisition of Exverus Media) and resource consolidation spreading across the indie world.

One side effect of this increase in independent wealth is that private equity and venture capital firms are interested in building a level of scale that will attract refugee clients leaving holdcos. But there are also investors like Vikram Seth of No, a company that helps independent companies access technology and capital without being plundered by PEs, and invests in them so they can grow on their own. Seth is also scheduled to speak at the summit this week.

The role of DSPs and the open web is impacting how agencies plan and invest

Digiday’s Sam Bradley, who frequently writes about the opportunities and vagaries of today’s programmatic-driven and partially automated advertising market, says that part of the reason ad agencies are so enthusiastic about bespoke post-cookie targeting approaches, such as contextual and lookalike advertising tools, is to emphasize their importance. This is a way to counter the proliferation of DSPs that are diminishing the role of DSPs through media buying automation, joint business deals, and one-stop-shop menus.

For example, consider all the partnerships Amazon has established. Far from its origins as an e-commerce destination, Amazon is seeking in many ways to become the last resort in the advertising market.

Whether that spells the end of the open web is still up for debate. But between the stranglehold the walled garden has placed on digital media and the evolving influence of DSPs that attract a larger share of advertising dollars, there is no doubt that buying and selling media continues to be more complex than ever.

Retail media and commerce continues to grow, but also faces growing pains

Although its impressive pace of growth has slowed somewhat, retail media and broader commerce media remain areas where agencies have spent time investing in and mentoring their clients. Meanwhile, the number of marketers throwing their hats (and data) into the sales ring has seemingly continued to grow, with American Express and Mastercard being the latest entrants.

The summit will provide insight from recent entrant Mastercard into how retail and commercial media fits into broader media planning given its ability to approximate attribution.

That said, nearly all analysts agree that a shakeout of players is inevitable and could impact the industry as early as 2026. It is estimated that 250 players could be eliminated by around 10-20 top players (such as Amazon, Walmart, and several others).

Sara Marzano, principal analyst at eMarketer, told Modern Retail’s Anna Hensel in September:[Retail media] As it moves from an emerging media channel to a leading media channel and gains a larger base as it matures, it is somewhat inevitable that its growth rate will start to slow down over the years. ”

color code by number

Last week, one number stood out as an indicator of how pervasive generative AI is across the world. OpenAI’s new video generation app, Sora, Searches for “Sora invitation code” have skyrocketed by 5,040%that could lead to a mass influx of AI into the social media space. “We’ll soon see a tsunami of AI-generated videos hitting social feeds,” said Saul Marquez, founder and CEO of digital marketing agency Outcomes Rocket. “As services like Sora become more mainstream, everything in the scroll can become synthetic. This poses a huge problem for brands built on authenticity.”

takeoff and landing

• M+c search obtained women’s sports groupa media rights consulting firm. WSG will become part of M+C Saatchi Sports & Entertainment, with Rachel Knight and Steph Harries appointed as joint MDs of the division.
• media by mother Four years after launching in New York, the company will open a London office and will be led by its CEO. david gaines and Tara Grimeshe was responsible for media planning, but moved across the pond to become media director.
• OOH media agency Billups has appointed several executives to leadership positions as it expands globally. mark marienfeld He was appointed Managing Director for Germany, based in Munich, and joined HYGH AG, where he served as Chief Growth Officer. Salvador Garcia He has been appointed Managing Director for Latin America, based in Mexico. and Sunil Yadav He has been appointed Head of Revenue for Asia Pacific, based in Singapore.
• Move account: delta airlines The company’s media business has been put under review and now Omnicom is in charge. doctor … IPG Media Brand Landing media AOR operations for retailers H&M Six markets in Asia Pacific: Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam… media plus group landed burger kingMedia strategy, planning and buying across Germany for … Canadian Digital Bank EQ bank tapped arrival + departure To become that medium and creative AOR.
• Personnel changes: WPP MediaCEO of North America Shab Farjami He has left holdco and his role will be temporarily filled by Global CEO. Brian Lesser Until a replacement is found… publicis sports hired susie dearingthe former CMO of Ford and eBay has been appointed as the new CEO. Dearing was a Boomerang at Publicis and served as CEO of Moxy from 2012 to 2015. gravity global promotion Jose Lozano Change from president to CEO mark lethbridge Who will be the executive chairman … Independent Siberian recruitment jeff brecker To be a partner for growth and innovation… razor fish hired Will Ferguson He became the company’s chief growth officer after a similar role at Dentsu Media … Novus named Adam Wyler He will become Senior Vice President of Data and Analytics. razor fish.

direct quote

“FAST channels have become more important in the CTV environment as their viewership has steadily increased over the past few years. Our partnership with Viant shows that Tubi understands the value of a unified identity space, which is critical for advertisers to reach the exact audience they want and manage frequency to target within that audience.”
— Harry Brown, vice president of television at Tinuity, tells Sam Bradley

speed reading