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A year in review for media agencies… without the rankings and self-deception

A year in review for media agencies… without the rankings and self-deception

15 Dec 2025 | Omar Oakes

Omar Oakes assesses what 2025 actually revealed about media agencies and why the usual scorecards are lying to us.

Omnicom: be careful what you wish for
Omnicom: be careful what you wish for
30 Nov 2025 | Omar Oakes
At last! Disney embraces creators — now who else has the courage to follow?
At last! Disney embraces creators — now who else has the courage to follow?
17 Nov 2025 | Omar Oakes
Trust is essential to the future of media. But how can advertisers measure it?
Trust is essential to the future of media. But how can advertisers measure it?
03 Nov 2025 | Omar Oakes
Three ways to access £15bn in adspend
Three ways to access £15bn in adspend
20 Oct 2025 | Omar Oakes
Stop blaming planners. It’s their clients who make media ineffective
Stop blaming planners. It’s their clients who make media ineffective
06 Oct 2025 | Omar Oakes

The special media relationship

22 Sep 2025 | Omar Oakes

One side of the Atlantic is hollowing out what makes its media culture special; the other is fighting to preserve it.

Googlers are laughing at you. Can you blame them?

08 Sep 2025 | Omar Oakes

Advertisers should be dismayed. Instead, Google’s victory in court proves how deeply our industry has normalised monopoly.

Why parasitic platforms keep feeding on media (and what’s next)

26 Aug 2025 | Omar Oakes

Social platforms promised reach. What they delivered was dependence, collapse and lost audiences. Media owners, advertisers and agencies now face the same trap with AI.

Who is left standing if all your agencies are paying to play?

11 Aug 2025 | Omar Oakes

What does it say about confidence in our industry that we still have to give marketers guidance about how to run fair pitch processes?

No-one knows whether YouTube is TV or social — not even YouTube

28 Jul 2025 | Omar Oakes

TV has earned trust because its numbers are verified, scrutinised and benchmarked. Social media? Not so much. Google needs to decide where YouTube stands. 

Cindy Rose is the right choice for a CEO (but maybe not at WPP)

14 Jul 2025 | Omar Oakes

WPP’s new CEO has an extraordinary CV. But Rose’s appointment signals a deeper crisis in advertising: the people running it no longer believe it’s a creative business.

Time to fight back against media’s mobile peer pressure

30 Jun 2025 | Omar Oakes

We ban smartphones from our kids, but design media plans that depend on them. If mobile screen time has now overtaken TV, isn’t it finally time to do something about this contradiction?

5 reasons why WPP’s next CEO should be AI

16 Jun 2025 | Omar Oakes

If the job of running an agency holding company has become performative, constrained and algorithmic, why pretend it requires a human?

Roll your own DICE: How values will save you from the AI swamp

02 Jun 2025 | Omar Oakes

This is why human-led content needs a compass more than ever: values can’t be faked. You can’t prompt your way to perspective.

What if the next great agency was built for a dry cleaner?

19 May 2025 | Omar Oakes

The ad industry keeps obsessing over whales, but the krill are paying the bills. It’s time someone built an agency for the rest.

+ More Omar Oakes

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