I am one of the 400 million streamers of Doechii’s Anxiety on Spotify. Don’t get me wrong.
I don’t feel like an ‘elephant is standin’ on me’ but I can feel its weight on the marketing communications (MarCom) industry.
Listen to the chatter: We either have cautiously optimistic predictions of a moderate growth era or shocker statements that traditional advertising and public relations models are passé and have morphed into digital and social media dominated by the platform companies. Between the two are wagers on the ‘transformational impact’ of artificial intelligence (AI).
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The confusion is palpable. And the verdict is clear: we are witnessing an industry – that has counselled corporates and governments, built brands, shaped leaders and helped transform economies – shaking at its core. As Doechii crooned, the industry can’t shake off its
own anxiety.
The cause of anxiety
Fewer industries have lost their North Star than the MarCom sector with the disruption by major digital platform companies such as Alphabet, META, Amazon and ByteDance, particularly during the last decade. Today, these platforms command ad budgets at scale, leaving agency networks scrambling.
Even as agency networks touted ‘integration’, they failed to see that they were handing over their core services to tech players who promised to execute campaigns at a fraction of the cost. If content once was the territory of the MarCom sector, it simply slipped into the domain of the tech ecosystem, which created its own user-generated content platforms and distribution channels. To add to the heady mix is the growing tribe of influencers who command more mind space and marketing dollars than before.
What we have since witnessed is large agency networks acquiring, merging, rebranding, consolidating and trying in vain to keep a toehold of their shrinking market share. Their desperate attempts to simplify their complex structure, built in the acquisition era when money was cheap, have spectacularly failed. Many of the mighty have fallen, and how!
An identity crisis
Today, these major networks see the ground slipping under their feet. Tech platforms are increasingly owning what was their domain, namely, the power of storytelling, the power to influence and the power to create. The uncertainty within the industry giants has led to job losses and increasing client movements, besides falling revenue and shocking depression in stock market valuations, reflecting the negative view of industry analysts. There are some great exceptions here, particularly those networks that made strategic investments in digital and data companies at the right time.
We all know the obvious: digital platforms now control nearly 70 per cent of the global $1tn advertising spend and are reshaping the economics of media and marketing. With platforms increasingly investing and innovating with AI and digital media, agency networks are only playing catch-up. Even large networks that claim to be investing in AI are simply buying off the tech platforms rather than innovating themselves because they simply do not have the spending heft.
The sweet spot
Even as large agency networks and these platform behemoths face off, there will be a further rebalancing of power. But what most people are yet to see is a sweet spot for independent global networks that can help realise a Goldilocks order.
So, what makes such an independent global network thrive in the current market situation? Does size matter? It does. It must be the right size – neither too big nor too small. Some say not more than $5bn in revenue. They must be globally and regionally relevant. Having a common proprietary tech and AI spine that brings all its brands and service offerings into one integrated whole, delivering real impact for clients. Thriving in a heady mix of both tech and creativity in equal measure. Human-led but AI-fed.
This shift is imminent because our industry has learnt the inescapable truth: acquisitions do not create genuine integration. Agency networks need an internal robust technology layer that resolves complexities instead of multiplying them. This tech layer is the connective operating system that unifies data, workflow, attribution and intelligence across paid, earned, shared and owned channels.
From anxiety to opportunity
The MENA MarCom industry growth rests on the consolidation of a smart tech integrated model that most agency networks are building. We will leapfrog into the AI era faster than other geographies. Agency networks are now providing end-to-end retainers since clients are demanding fewer partners and more accountability.
While Doechii’s Anxiety is real for the industry, it is also a force for good: it can drive necessary change. For independent agencies and right-sized networks that are agile and collaborative and not lumbered under organisational hierarchies, 2026 offers a real opportunity amidst the chaos.
By Sunil John, Senior Advisor – MENA, Stagwell
