Media Buying Briefing: Why Omnicom merged Mediahub and Hearts & Science

Following its acquisition of Interpublic Group last year, which brought Mediahub, as well as UM and Initiative into its fold of existing media agencies (OMD, PHD and Hearts & Science), conventional thinking was that it wouldn’t be long before some of these brands were retired. This was despite Omnicom CEO John Wren’s protestations otherwise at the outset of the acquisition that that wouldn’t happen, at least how ID Comms’ co-founder Tom Denford remembers it, having sat at Omnicom HQ back in February 2025 when the acquisition was first announced.

Well, it’s happened, and for a few reasons.

Digiday spoke with four consultants and analysts who shared their thoughts and reasons for Omnicom’s move, as they also mused on where else the industry might see holdco consolidation. 

Steve Boehler, who runs the Mercer Island Group consultancy, believes Omnicom can choose from two general paths forward: complexity or conflict avoidance. The complexity would have Omnicom choose to merge IPG shops with IPG shops, given they already share back-office and other operational methods. That reality makes for an easier merging, except for one major issue: they run into major client conflicts, notably in the pharmaceutical space, which is notorious for being averse to sharing secrets with competition. 

Conversely, Boehler argued, the conflict avoidance path sidesteps client conflict but faces greater internal challenge to merging disparate systems. That’s essentially what the holdco chose to do with Mediahub and Hearts & Science. 

In an internal memo to staffers and clients, Omnicom Media global CEO Florian Adamski noted that “the fit between these agencies is remarkably complementary.” He described Hearts & Science as being “[b]uilt around data-driven marketing from day one,” and “a leader in audience intelligence, analytics, precision planning, and connected systems,” while Mediahub “built its reputation through challenger thinking, cultural creativity, and an ability to help ambitious brands grow through periods of disruption.” 

To Adamski’s thinking, they share “the same principles: challenge convention, embrace innovation, and put client growth at the center of every decision,” resulting in what he hopes will be “meaningful global scale built from complementary market strengths rather than overlap, giving clients culturally relevant and locally informed solutions everywhere they do business.” 

Despite the fact that many in the industry no longer feel individual agency brands carry much value in a holding company environment, thanks to the homogeneity of it all, Kangisser said he feels something is lost a bit in Mediahub’s merger with H&S. Mediahub, to his thinking, is “a creative led media buying agency, not a media led creative agency,” he said. “I think that in a world where differentiation is at an all-time low, and brands are therefore needing to lean into strategy, on the surface, whether or not they play up [that distinction] in this merged model remains to be seen … The kind of the data and technology that Hearts & Science has — well that’s just media these days, almost table stakes. I don’t think that’s differentiating. What is definitely differentiating in this world is that of strategy and of true creative-led media planning and buying. I don’t think it’s that plentiful in in our marketplace.”

The fact is, something needs to be merged or cut for Omnicom to achieve the savings Wren and co. have promised Wall Street. Jay Pattisall, vp and senior agency analyst at Forrester, pointed out that Omnicom’s share of revenue per headcount is lower than its peers. 

According to Pattisall’s math, Omnicom Group’s headcount grew by 60% in 2025 when it closed on the IPG acquisition. In comparison, Publicis Groupe’s was 5.5% and WPP’s was -8.7%, and neither of them made acquisitions at the same scale that year.

Additionally, “according to Omnicom Group’s Q4 2025 investor presentation, 70% of costs savings slated for 2026 and 2027 are labor related,” noted Pattisall. “The very straightforward reality is that they will need to adjust the headcount to revenue ratio over a period of time in order to meet the savings and efficiency objectives that they have outlined and their obligations to shareholders and and Wall Street. And that practically translates into headcount reduction.”

Omnicom has cut 7,200 positions between the end of 2025 and today, Pattisall added, and he expects at least the same number of cuts between now and 2027, which may well include more agency mergers ahead.

In his memo, Adamski didn’t address whether there would be headcount reduction, but rather played up opportunities for growth and movement: “Bringing together complementary capabilities gives our people access to broader career paths, more diverse client experiences, expanded learning opportunities, and greater collaboration across disciplines and geographies.”

Denford noted — as did the other sources — that none of the holding companies need that many brands anymore anyway. “I expected that the smaller media agency brands would eventually be merged to create fewer media agencies, said Denford. “In my view, the group doesn’t need more than three media networks so consolidation was inevitable, despite what John Wren stated at the outset.” 

Color by numbers

By almost all measures, the World Cup in 2026 was a major success for FIFA, Fox and NBCU (the cherry on top being the nearly 63 million U.S. viewers who tuned into Spain’s defeat of Argentina in the final — and that’s not counting OOH viewership through platforms like ReachTV). On top of it all, goodwill generated toward ordinary Americans by the millions of visitors certainly helps at a challenging time in U.S. history. 

But will all this attention translate into greater fandom for soccer in the U.S., as embodied by Major League Soccer and carriage of Premiere League (England’s league)? A study from Acceleration Community of Companies (ACC) and the USC Annenberg School of Journalism and Communications, called Gen Z and Sports Fandom, found that 49% of Gen Z get into a sport because of creator content by athletes, fans and viral video. Only 26% of call themselves die-hards who watch full games. It also found that 78% of Gen Z say they have or would attend a sporting event primarily for outside experiences like brand activations, celebrity appearances, or concerts. So much for the sport of it all. 

Takeoff & landing

• Havas’ first half earnings for 2026 showed organic revenue growth at a decent but not huge 2.5%, a slight uptick over growth in H1 2025. The best news for the French holding company is that North American growth is its strongest, at 6.9% (APAC and Africa, are sliding back at -4% due to weakness in China and the Middle East). Operating margins ticked upward slightly to 11%. 
• Changes at Dentsu are beginning to bubble up under new global CEO Takeshi Sano, as the Japanese holdco’s global chief communications and marketing officer Jeremy Miller is parting ways by mutual agreement.
• Account moves: Publicis picked up media duties for Adidas in China, which had been handled by WPP … Omnicom retained Uber’s media business for several regions including North America, EMEA and Latin America (adding Brazil for the first time), while WPP’s EssenceMediacom secured Uber’s APAC business … Tinuiti landed media AOR duties for apparel and footwear company Wolverine World Wide … Hawke Media won AOR duties for Jacuzzi Group. 

Direct quote

“As media companies are developing their own agentic systems, I think we just need to be really mindful that we don’t wind up creating a bunch more walled gardens. We really want to make sure that, as the next frontier of our business is developed, it’s an interoperable one.”

— A major chief investment officer, speaking about the rise of agentic tools and systems in upfront negotiations.

Speed reading

• Sam Bradley found out that Google has quietly made it a bit easier for agencies and brands to exert a bit more control in its Performance Max campaign tool. 
• Alyssa Mercante assembled all the stats and numbers you want to know about the impact creators had on this year’s World Cup coverage. 
• In his Future of TV Briefing, Tim Peterson looked at how the IAB’s Redefining Media Types Standard could address the streaming ad market’s call for quality controls.