Media Buying Briefing: As Q1 results from a few holdcos show, the market’s not panicking, yet

However, others have been around that long as well, and perhaps marketers — with the guidance of their media agencies — have learned that cutting back marketing and media spend during bad times amounts to little more than short-term gain but certainly long-term market share erosion. 

Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun encapsulated this sentiment during his discussion with analysts about the holding company’s strong Q1 2026 results. ““Our clients are used to navigating uncertainty,” Sadoun said. “They know that if they cut marketing spend, they will lose market share… This is why we have not seen any significant reduction in marketing budget in Q1.”

Similarly, Havas, which also reported Q1 earnings last week, declared its North American organic revenue growth to have hit 7.4%, a surprisingly high number — and another indication that marketers aren’t pulling back. Growth was more modest in Europe, and actually rolled backwards in Africa and the Middle East, but still netted out at 2.5% when taken in total. 

“This performance, in line with our full year 2026 guidance, was driven in particular by continued strength in the U.S.,” Havas CEO Yannick Bolloré said in announcing Q1 results. 

Could it be that things just appear to be much worse than they are — kind of the “objects in your side mirror are closer than they appear” effect? Kern Schireson, CEO of independent full service shop Known, thinks there’s something to that. 

“The psychological uncertainty for a lot of people right now seems to be greater than the structural uncertainty — business is kind of working, and AI is providing a lot of efficiency,” said Schireson whose agency just hired its first-ever chief client officer in agency veteran Lynn Lewis, a longtime IPG exec. “The flywheels of our economy are intact, and yet it’s just really hard to watch what’s happening around the world.”

Lewis, whose agency experience lies in client service, said there have been too many economic dips from which marketers have learned not to take their foot off the ad spending pedal. 

“Think about what happened in 2008/09 and obviously during Covid — this isn’t that kind of a moment. And so we stay the course,” said Lewis. “Let’s have this conversation in six months and see where we are in the world and where we are from spend and marketing perspective.”

Staying the course, or even ramping up, is even showing up in results and announcements issued by a few advertisers. Pepsico’s CFO Stephen Schmitt last week noted that the beverage and snacks giant will increase advertising and marketing this year, as it sees volume and sales hikes (largely due to price cuts of some of its products). And Adidas, in revealing it’s putting its media business into review after seven years with WPP Media’s EssenceMediacom, not only spent more on media last year, but plans to keep increasing its spend in 2026. 

To Schireson, that’s evidence of a K shaped economy — with the haves fueling spending on expensive sneakers while snacks and beverage pricing rolls back to accommodate those on a budget. 

All this to say, it doesn’t mean all media will benefit from this surprisingly steady and resilient ad marketplace. In a recent report in his Madison & Wall Substack, veteran media analyst Brian Wieser, noted that brand advertising, which accounts for a solid portion of TV ad dollars (albeit less as video sellers show more performance value to advertisers) won’t necessarily return to traditional media outlets, as digital video options offer a better and often less expensive alternative. 

“A shift back toward brand likely does not imply a return to legacy channels. Instead, it points to a different model of brand building, one that is digital-first, influencer-led, and integrated with the same systems that power performance marketing, with legacy channels playing a supporting role,” wrote Wieser. 

The upfront marketplace, kicking off in a few weeks time, will certainly provide a bellwether of sorts of just how stoic marketers and their agencies can remain in the face of a lingering war between the U.S. and Iran, a dramatic spike in inflationary factors — and simply put, geopolitical instability not seen in a generation. 

The FTC’s empty rhetoric on the issue of brand safety

I try not to get political in this column, despite the last sentence of the prior story. But last week the Federal Trade Commission attempted to make progress on an issue that many in the agency world argued is, in fact, a non-issue.

The FTC, along with several Republican-led states, said it “took decisive action today to stop collusion between the nation’s largest advertising agencies that distorted America’s modern public square.” In other words, three holding companies — WPP,  Dentsu and Publicis — agreed, according to the FTC statement, “to a proposed order that will stop the alleged coordinated conduct and prevent similar conduct from occurring in the future.”

(The FTC said it already got concessions from Omnicom as a condition of approving its acquisition of IPG last year.) 

What that order is, none of the holdcos mentioned would say. 

It all goes back to Elon Musk striking back at advertisers and agencies that moved their dollars away from X shortly after he took over ownership and did away with virtually all control over hate and extremist content — most of which no advertiser would ever want to be near or associated with. During that time he succeeded in putting the Global Alliance for Responsible Media out of business, claiming it was a collusive effort. 

In the end, none of the kabuki theater around this issue matters, because as one holding company executive put it, “any advertiser can tell X to basically fuck off if they don’t want to have their ads there,” and adding, “not many advertisers have gone back anyway.”

Ironically, this exec noted that if the administration were actually serious about the issue, it could easily have hung the threat of pulling away government ad contracts from the holding companies (WPP holds the U.S. Marines and Navy contracts while Omnicom’s Army contract was just put up for review).

In statements issued in response to the FTC’s action, WPP Media confirmed it “reached agreement on a mutually acceptable consent order with the FTC on a no admit nor deny basis. We are pleased to finalize this agreement with the FTC which reflects our existing and ongoing commitment to provide our clients with unbiased advice as they decide where to place their media.”

Dentsu meanwhile said it “remains fully committed to operating transparently, with integrity, and in strict compliance with all applicable laws. Our dedication to delivering value and maintaining the highest standards of compliance is unchanged.” 

In other words, the whole issue is what one exec dubbed a “nothing burger.”

Color by numbers

As influencer and creator marketing efforts continue to attract more ad dollars year after year, the latest subset to reap those benefits are micro- and nano-creators. At least that’s what data from influencer marketing firm Collabstr is showing. Some stats: 

• Micro influencer campaigns returned an average of $5.78 per $1 spent;
• Some micro campaigns delivered 5x–8x ROI, depending on format and placement
• User generated content campaigns drove 29% higher conversions than non-UGC content
• 80% of brands either maintained or increased influencer budgets in 2025, with 47% increasing budgets by 11% or more.

Takeoff & landing

• Last week saw multiple shifts in leadership, either announced or already occurred. For one, Bob Liodice, the longtime CEO of the Association of National Advertisers, said he’s leaving the organization at the end of the year. The CEO of oil firm Shell and P&G’s Marc Pritchard are leading the charge on finding Liodice’s replacement. Also, the Advertising Research Foundation’s CEO Scott McDonald will retire in 2027 once a replacement is found for him. And finally, Tinuiti hired Abbey Klaassen to be its new CEO, as founding CEO Zach Morrison steps down. Dentsu chose to amend Klaassen’s role at Dentsu Creative, where she was U.S. CEO and global brand president, by naming Phil Gaughran as Americas CEO. 
• Meanwhile, Dentsu rolled out the 4.0 version of its Dentsu.Connect operating platform, which is designed to operate across Dentsu’s creative, production and media within a single, AI-powered system. Among other things, Dentsu.Connect 4.0 employs something called “Agentic diplomacy”: agents that collaborate with external systems and external agents outside the holdco.
• Account moves: Footwear company Adidas put its global media account into review, which is currently handled by WPP Media’s EssenceMediacom … However, WPP Media picked up media duties for KFC and Pizza Hut in the Singapore market … Kepler won media AOR duties for frozen meal maker Daily Harvest … Goodway Group won shopper marketing AOR duties for Publix, a Southern supermarket chain … Independent Zambezi won creative and media duties for game maker Nex Playground. 

Direct quote

“I want to be my clients’ first call. Remember the phrase, ‘What keeps you up at night?’ For me, I want them either to call me or text me late at night, or first thing in the morning with whatever’s on their mind.”

— Lynn Lewis, who joined independent Known last week as its first chief client officer after a long career at IPG.

Speed reading

• Continuing her excellent coverage of OpenAI’s aggressive venturing into selling advertising on its ChatGPT AI platform, Krystal Scanlon looked more carefully at its ad manager, found out it has launched a tool to track ad conversion and finally, heard that it’s dropping its CPMs considerably. 
• Sam Bradley reported on how the U.K. ad marketplace is relatively healthy too, despite its own economic headwinds. 
• Bradley also delved into how agencies are on the lookout to increase the expertise and number of organic search personnel as GEO becomes a more important part of the discipline.