Media Buying Briefing: How ‘outcomes’ has become the latest term to be overused

Let’s start with Dentsu, which was the last holdco to issue H1 2026 earnings, which weren’t terrible but also weren’t indicative of any major turnaround just yet, following three years of either moribund growth or actual shrinkage (with apologies to George Costanza). 

Dentsu’s net revenue grew 3.7% over H1 2025, while organic growth went from negatively flat to a slightly positive flat (0.3% growth). Operating margins increased just slightly from 12% to 12.3%, trailing Publicis (which enjoyed a 17.5% margin),  Stagwell (16%) and Omnicom (14%) but ahead of both Havas and WPP. 

Dentsu essentially falls in the category of holdcos that find themselves amidst transformation (last year’s overused word in the business) like WPP and even S4, the latter of which suffered more than most when tech advertisers pulled back dramatically. Meanwhile, Publicis and Omnicom and the smaller Stagwell position themselves as growth performers. Omnicom gets credit for being a growth performer, despite still absorbing the acquisition of IPG — although some of that “growth” is coming from massive cost cuts and selling off non-core agencies and assets. 

Which leads us back to outcomes. Although not every holdco has prioritized the term, WPP is one that leaned heavily into outcomes in its H1 earnings report. As the London-based holdco’s global CEO Cindy Rose told Digiday’s Sam Bradley, “moving away from a time-and-materials model frees me up from staffing plans so that I can serve clients with a hybrid workforce of humans and agents, and that reduces my cost to serve, and ultimately becomes a source of expansion.”

Dentsu’s taking up a similar posture. “Importantly, clients don’t buy capabilities. They buy outcomes,” wrote newish global CEO Takeshi Sano in an internal letter after announcing H1 earnings. “Growth is core to what we do. Relevance and transformation strengthen how we deliver growth for our clients. Our role is to connect the best of Dentsu around those challenges and deliver measurable business impact.”

The thing is, outcomes are hard to determine, as one third-party executive who declined to speak for attribution, explained. Holdcos can talk all day about determining outcomes but until you’re actually wired into the brains of consumers — and no one is recommending that — there are simply too many external factors that influence them for any agency to be able to fully take credit.

“I think a lot of people underestimated the challenges with outcomes, and thought it would be straightforward,” said the executive. “It’s obviously not — it’s complex. There’s different levels of complexity for different types of marketers and for different scales of marketers too.”

The exec explained that what influences a car purchase can range from riding in an Uber and thinking, ‘Oh this car is nice,’ or coveting your your neighbor’s wheels, or even whether it’s the right price point — or a thousand other factors. “It’s all much harder than it looks — easier perhaps with lower-cost items, or with new products vs. established products.”

In other words the holding companies have their work cut out to figure out how to get to outcomes. They may even be at a disadvantage with their size and slower ability to pivot.Even Sano, in his internal note, acknowledges that reality. 

“The future will not be won by the biggest organizations,” he wrote. “It will be won by those that are most focused, most agile, most innovative and most disciplined in execution. That is the Dentsu we are building.”

Time will tell if he’s able to pull off the turnaround he hopes for. Meanwhile, independents will continue to push for something akin to outcomes. Take PMG, for example, which talked of outputs for clients, an operating philosophy founder George Popstefanov espoused years ago.

Color by numbers

Despite big-picture worries about AI and its potentially harmful effect on life, some consumers are surprisingly comfortable with handing over their wallets to a bot to purchase items for them. According to the latest Croud Consumer Index report from agency Croud, which surveyed 2,000 U.S. consumers and aimed to gauge how AI is reshaping the entire path to purchase, 69% of Americans are open to AI buying something for them without approval in at least one category, while 75% would use AI-powered instant checkout (subject to their approval). Other highlights:

• 73% of AI users turn to the technology before deciding on a specific product, which indicates that AI is influencing shoppers before brand preferences have formed;
• 39% of AI users check four or more sources before buying, with 1 in 3 specifically validating via YouTube. 
• Specifically within the world of fashion, AI-assisted fashion shoppers spend 56% more than non-users.

Takeoff & landing

• WPP Media landed media strategy, planning and buying duties in North America and EMEA for driverless car firm Waymo, which is expanding into several new markets internationally.
• Independent Canvas Worldwide won burger chain Five Guys‘ U.S. media business. 
• Tinuiti partnered with data and market intelligence provider Guideline to challenge the idea that smaller independent agencies struggle to provide similar buying power to their larger competitors. Tinuiti joined Guideline’s partner ecosystem as a strategic data contributor to the latter’s Ad Intelligence product.
• Independent Known is expanding its experiential chops with the hire of Jennifer Houston as svp of experiential, a new role there. She comes from agency George P. Johnson where she was head of sports and sponsorship engagement. 
• Mobile SSP InMobi Advertising said it’s offering media buyers a new conversational AI agent and opened its self-serve deal platform, Buyer Hub, to agencies and managed service DSPs for direct access to its premium ad inventory.

Direct quote

“In a complex world, clients are looking for partners who can drive growth, move with speed, deliver deeper relevance and earn lasting trust. While these shifts bring undeniable challenges, they also create extraordinary opportunities for those willing to adapt and lead. The defining question is not whether our industry will evolve, but what impact will we make on shaping that evolution.”

— Takeshi Sano, global CEO of Dentsu, in a letter to employees.

Speed reading

• I covered mobile DSP Moloco’s expansion into an agency partner program which will help it expand into the CTV space. 
• Sam Bradley looked into how S4 Capital and its Monks media agency network is handling the reining in of token costs when it comes to AI usage across the network. 
• In his latest Future of TV Briefing, Tim Peterson examined how the move from traditional TV to streaming is going not only for TV sellers but also for buyers — hint: buyers are the winners in this equation.