MENA agencies remain 'strong' despite major global Omnicom-IPG shakeup

Leaders from agencies within major holding groups have told Campaign Middle East that the major global shake-up following Omnicom’s takeover of Interpublic Group (IPG) will have minimal fallout on the Middle East region.

Earlier this week, as the UAE was celebrating its 54th National Day with a long weekend, news broke across the globe that Omnicom has launched a restructure, including new leadership, more than 4,000 redundancies globally – adding to previous cuts – while axing the DDB, FCB and MullenLowe brands entirely.

The global holding company, which is now the world’s largest by revenue, will reportedly operate with only three global creative agency networks – BBDO, TBWA and McCann – but will retain all six global media networks, OMD, PHD, Hearts & Science, Initiative, UM and Mediahub.

Campaign Middle East reached out to several industry leaders in the MENA region for comment. A few leaders, under conditions of anonymity, shared that this global shake-up will ‘not affect current clients, portfolios, leadership structures or teams’ in the region.

Others shared that while ‘global brands such as FCB and MullenLower may fold into BBDO and TBWA’, the MENA agencies will continue to operate much the same.

Currently, in the MENA region, Omnicom Media Group – MENA, led by CEO Elda Choucair; Impact BBDO Group, led by Chairman and Group CEO Dani Richa; and TBWA\RAAD led by CEO Reda Raad unite under the Omnicom Group holding company umbrella. Meanwhile, the acquired IPG Group operates with the Middle East Communications Network (MCN) network powerhouse led by Group CEO Ghassan Harfouche; and Horizon Holdings led by CEO Mazen Jawad.

In a statement to Campaign Middle East, Mazen Jawad, CEO, Horizon Holdings, said, “Horizon FCB in the MENA region remains strong and continues as is even though the global Omnicom-IPG shakeup just happened.”

At a global level, John Wren, CEO, Omnicom, said that the sweeping changes will be a “catalyst” for change, growth and greater collaboration internally. A public statement by Omnicom insisted “we still believe in agency brands” and it was “de-siloing” to break down internal barriers.

Campaign UK under Haymarket shared details on what the Omnicom-IPG global restructure includes:

Global restructure, redundancies and leadership changes at Omnicom

These are the key highlights of the new organisation that have been announced to staff:

DDB, FCB and MullenLowe will be “retired” in the first half of 2026. The agencies’ people and clients will be split in different ways in local markets across the three surviving global creative networks. In the UK, Adam & Eve/DDB London will combine with TBWA\London to form Adam & Eve\TBWA with a single management team.
Nine “Connected Capabilities” across the holding company, with executives from Omnicom, rather than IPG, holding the top position at most of the units. These include Omnicom Advertising and Omnicom Media. They were previously known as groups, such as OAG and OMG, but Omnicom has shortened the group name in a push to remove silos and encourage collaboration.
Omnicom Media will operate six global media agency networks: OMD; PHD; Hearts & Science; Initiative; UM; and Mediahub. However, the agencies will be led by global brand presidents, rather than global agency CEOs. There will still be agency CEOs in local markets, under the umbrella of OM.
Omnicom Advertising will have only three global creative networks, BBDO, TBWA and McCann, each led by a global CEO. About a dozen smaller creative shops, such as Lucky Generals in the UK, Grabarz & Partners in Germany and The Martin Agency in the US, will continue to operate as boutique-type agencies.
The enlarged group is making 4,000 redundancies, on top of previous job cuts. Some of these started after 1 October but most will fall during December.
Omnicom will shed a further 10,000 people from its payroll as it is withdrawing from many smaller agencies through sales and disposals, in some cases keeping a minority stake.
Omnicom is also appointing Client Success Leaders, with “senior accountability across all Connected Capabilities”, to provide more bespoke clients solutions at an “Omnicom level”.
Total headcount of the enlarged group will be about 105,000, a major reduction of about 18% versus the 128,000 across Omnicom and IPG at the end of 2024. About 85% of employees will be in “professional” roles and 15% in “back office” jobs. The plunge in staff numbers includes several waves of earlier redundancies at IPG, which reported a reduction of 3200 staff in the first nine months of 2025, and at Omnicom, which did not disclose any prior numbers. “All planned merger-related layoffs will be completed by the end of December,” a spokesperson said.

Global leadership appointments

The leadership of the new nine “Connected Capabilities” is:

Florian Adamski, CEO, Omnicom Media, including Hearts & Science, Initiative, Mediahub, OMD, PHD and UM, as well as Acxiom.
Chris Foster, CEO, Omnicom Public Relations, including FleishmanHillard, Golin, Ketchum, Porter Novelli and Weber Shandwick .
Sergio Lopez, CEO, Omnicom Production, including Content Solutions, Production Management, and Studios.
Duncan Painter, CEO, Omni and Flywheel Commerce Network, featuring Omni, the advanced intelligence platform that will power all capabilities, and Flywheel, the market-leading commerce group.
Troy Ruhanen, CEO, Omnicom Advertising, including BBDO, McCann, TBWA, and the US Advertising Collective.
Michael Larson, CEO, Diversified Agency Services, with reports including:
Dana Maiman, CEO, Omnicom Health, including Healthcare Professional & Consumer, Medical Communications, Patient Engagement, and Managed Markets.
Mark O’Brien, CEO, Omnicom Branding, including Interbrand, Siegel & Gale, Sterling Brands, and Wolff Olins.
Luke Taylor, CEO, Omnicom Precision Marketing, including Credera, Critical Mass and Rapp

Of those nine leaders, eight are from Omnicom; Maiman alone is an IPG executive.

In addition, Omnicom is appointing two “Omnicom-level teams” to “accelerate the effectiveness of its Connected Capabilities” for clients:

Jacki Kelley, the chief client and business officer, who was formerly at IPG, and Andrea Lennon, client experience officer, will lead the Client Success Leaders (CSLs).
George Manas, chief growth and solutions officer, who is currently CEO of OMD, will lead an Omnicom Global Growth team to “ensure an integrated, enterprise-level view on client needs and innovative solutions across new business development”.

Other key executives who have already been announced are Phil Angelastro, who is chief financial officer, and Philippe Krakowsky, formerly the CEO of IPG, and Daryl Simm , who are co-presidents and chief operating officers.

The global leadership of the key creative and media agency networks

Key creative changes include Tyler Turnbull moving from FCB to be CEO of McCann, Chaka Sobhani moving from DDB to head creative for TBWA\Worldwide and Javier Campopiano, formerly of McCann, taking a global client and creative role for OA.

The leaders of Omnicom Advertising’s networks are:

Nancy Reyes, global CEO, BBDO, and Chris Beresford-Hill, global chief creative officer, BBDO
Erin Riley, global CEO, TBWA, and Chaka Sobhani, global CCO, TBWA
Tyler Turnbull, global CEO, McCann, and Andres Ordines, global CCO, McCann
Javier Campopiano, formerly of McCann, becomes global chief client officer and chief creative officer of Omnicom Advertising

Ruhanen told Campaign UK the decision to cut the number of global creative networks would not affect clients, which would still have plenty of “choice”.

He insisted: “We all believe in agency brands, as long as they fit a need, have a clear perspective, have a strong culture and will be able to meet the future client needs.” He added: “Yes, there’s consolidation happening at a network level. But in terms of what we have to offer the marketplace, no one comes within a mile of what we have to offer in terms of being able to provide the right fit for the client.”

The global brand presidents heading the six media agency networks are:

George Manas, OMD
Stacy DeRiso, Initiative
Susan Kingston, Brown UM
Christian Flouch, PHD
Leaders for Hearts & Science and Mediahub have not yet been confirmed

Adamski said greater scale in media was less about buying clout and more about using it to “unlock” data and intelligence. “What will come to the fore is that we are creating a new model that is much more connected, that is much more fluid than it than it ever was, that brings together the scale in an intelligent way,” he said.

An Omnicom spokesperson said of the decision to drop the global media agency CEO roles: “We are not dropping global agency leadership roles. We are creating taxonomy consistency across our brands.” Local markets will continue to have agency CEOs.

Five “unique advantages” of the global Omnicom restructure

Omnicom claimed its new set-up means it has a number of “unique advantages”, listing five: the “strongest media eco-system”; “most influential content”; “connected commerce excellence”; “enterprise Generative AI capability”; and “identity leadership”.

The company explained these advantages, saying:

Strongest media ecosystem: “Omnicom has the world’s largest media network with unparalleled market leverage and intelligence – powered by Acxiom RealID [from IPG] and advanced ID-less solutions – that will unify paid, owned, earned, and commerce channels into a seamless system that drives value, precision, and measurable growth in a privacy-first world.”
Most influential content: “The undisputed leader in creativity and effectiveness, the new Omnicom creates the deepest bench of award-winning talent. Using the power of generative AI, it fuses imagination with intelligence to deliver superior personalised content at scale. Its unrivalled agency portfolio provides clients with unique solutions fit for their individual objectives.”
Connected commerce excellence: “Omnicom integrates comprehensive commerce intelligence and capabilities across marketplaces to connect marketing investment to sales performance, accelerating omnichannel growth and ROI.”
Enterprise Generative AI capability: “The combination provides scaled investment resources to capitalize on Omnicom’s existing first-mover partnerships with all the leading frontier AI model providers. This strategy accelerates the company’s ability to reengineer clients’ marketing operations for speed, intelligence and growth.”
Identity leadership: “Powered by the next generation of Omni and anchored by Acxiom RealID, Omnicom’s gold-standard identity solution unifies 2.6 billion verified global IDs, each with hundreds of cultural, media, and commerce signals, giving brands an unparalleled, privacy-first understanding of people worldwide – without relying on third-party cookies.”