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Welcome in, today is Tuesday, October twenty-seventh, and we begin with Adweek's reporting that Coca-Cola has divided its media business between two holding companies.
Adweek reports Coca-Cola ran two separate reviews and has come out with the account split. Omnicom takes media in the United States and Canada. WPP retains the global media business, along with creative, production and creator marketing through Open X. Per that account, Omnicom beat Dentsu in the North American contest, and that pitch only opened after Publicis resigned the business to take on PepsiCo's global media. Dentsu keeps Coca-Cola in Japan and South Korea, and WPP Media holds Australia and New Zealand, markets left out of the review. Ad Age puts Coca-Cola as the twenty-fourth largest United States advertiser, with estimated domestic ad costs of two point two billion dollars last year, and that is the scale now moving between holdcos. The same reporting says the new structure phases in from December first. Reaction from people close to the pitch leans toward reading the win as a creator and social mandate rather than a conventional media assignment.
Staying with Omnicom. Organic growth in core operations came in at seven point two percent for the third quarter, according to the company's results. Integrated Media grew above ten percent organically and contributed three point two billion dollars, fifty-three percent of core revenue, while the advertising discipline, which carries BBDO, TBWA and McCann, declined in the mid single digits. Reported revenue was six point four two billion dollars against four point zero four billion a year earlier, a jump the company attributes largely to the Interpublic acquisition. The adjusted EBITA margin widened to eighteen point two percent from sixteen point two, and John Wren said on the October twenty-second call that the group is on track for nine hundred million dollars in cost synergies this year. That discipline split is the read on which services the holdco says are carrying it. Industry reaction leans sceptical on the quality of the headline growth, with some practitioners arguing pass-through costs account for much of the gain.
Separately, Digiday's Media Buying Briefing argues the fourth quarter looks healthy on the surface and more fragile underneath. Six media buyers told the outlet clients are prioritising video, social and performance channels, with one independent agency reporting retail media budgets up twenty to thirty percent, pulled out of linear television and, to a lesser extent, search. That read carries a caution. Advertisers are watching the United States midterms and weak consumer confidence, and one buyer quoted there says clients are holding their breath until the outcome is known. The same piece notes an agency that expected thirty percent growth on Amazon has seen closer to seven. For anyone building first-quarter flowcharts, that gap is the planning signal. Some in the trade read the lift as money moving rather than money expanding.
Now to the competitive set. Adweek has interviewed Ndidi Oteh a year into running Accenture Song, and her growth plan centres on a one billion dollar agentic commerce pipeline and the Whalar creator acquisition, with media the space she says she is eyeing next. Per that account, Oteh took the job succeeding David Droga on condition she could set her own strategy, and the twenty billion dollar unit has bought more than seventy agencies since launching as Accenture Interactive. A consultancy selling commerce infrastructure rather than campaign craft is a rival holding companies now get measured against. Practitioner reaction leans toward a gap between that growth narrative and the employee experience inside the creative arm.
Now, a few more headlines moving the trade today. On the adtech side, Stagwell has acquired publisher monetisation network Freestar, per AdExchanger, folding its publisher inventory and audience data into the holdco's AI Media Machine. Terms were not disclosed.
Publicis has installed new leadership atop Marcel, Marketing Dive reports, as it builds the internal AI tool out into creator marketing, sports and culture.
Mumbrella reports Dentsu has parted ways with media investment leader Toni Frith, made redundant after nearly fifteen years, amid a restructure of its media divisions in Australia.
Across the platforms side, Pinterest's Programmatic Deals is now generally available in North America, South America and Asia Pacific, buyable through the Amazon, Google and Yahoo demand-side platforms, with Magnite on supply, per Adweek.
And finally, Apple Music has a new identity built from ripples of sound, made with TBWA Media Arts Lab and the musician Fred Again, according to Adweek.