{
  "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1.1",
  "title": "The Agency Brief",
  "home_page_url": "https://www.corisleachman.com/agency-brief/",
  "feed_url": "https://www.corisleachman.com/agency-brief/feed.json",
  "description": "A weekly read on where the agency market is moving, across new business, pricing and AI, for agency owners and leaders. Each issue picks the week’s dated, sourced developments and says why they matter for an independent agency.",
  "language": "en-GB",
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Coris Leachman",
      "url": "https://www.corisleachman.com/"
    }
  ],
  "items": [
    {
      "id": "https://www.corisleachman.com/agency-brief/q3-2026-earnings-where-value-moves/",
      "url": "https://www.corisleachman.com/agency-brief/q3-2026-earnings-where-value-moves/",
      "title": "Agencies' Q3 2026 earnings: where the value is moving",
      "summary": "Q3 earnings landed in a cluster and told one story: media and data are growing, classic creative is shrinking, and every major group is pricing its future on AI plus fewer people.",
      "content_text": "Q3 earnings landed in a cluster and told one story: media and data are growing, classic creative is shrinking, and every major group is pricing its future on AI plus fewer people.\n\n- WPP's creative revenue fell 5.1% while media returned to growth.\n- Publicis, the fastest-growing major, named the two-speed AI client.\n- Pricing is moving off the billable hour as a quarter of the work automates.",
      "date_published": "2026-11-02T07:00:00Z",
      "date_modified": "2026-11-02T07:00:00Z",
      "tags": [
        "agency new business",
        "AI enablement",
        "agency pricing",
        "GEO"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://www.corisleachman.com/agency-brief/ai-dividend-shows-up-in-the-pnl/",
      "url": "https://www.corisleachman.com/agency-brief/ai-dividend-shows-up-in-the-pnl/",
      "title": "The AI dividend shows up in the P&L, and most agencies can't measure theirs",
      "summary": "Holding-company Q3 results turned the AI and consolidation story into reported margin numbers and pitch-free wins. In the same week, agentic AI passed 50% adoption in marketing while two-thirds of organisations still had no way to prove its return.",
      "content_text": "Holding-company Q3 results turned the AI and consolidation story into reported margin numbers and pitch-free wins. In the same week, agentic AI passed 50% adoption in marketing while two-thirds of organisations still had no way to prove its return.\n\n- Omnicom grew 7.2% organically and said it is on track for $900m of IPG cost synergies.\n- Publicis named winning without a pitch as a strategy it wants to repeat.\n- 51% of marketing organisations use AI agents; 65% don't measure the return.",
      "date_published": "2026-10-26T07:00:00Z",
      "date_modified": "2026-11-02T07:00:00Z",
      "tags": [
        "holding companies",
        "agency new business",
        "AI enablement",
        "agency pricing",
        "martech"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://www.corisleachman.com/agency-brief/holdco-wars-become-a-margin-contest/",
      "url": "https://www.corisleachman.com/agency-brief/holdco-wars-become-a-margin-contest/",
      "title": "The holdco wars turn into a margin contest",
      "summary": "Publicis grew 5% and welcomed a three-horse race at the top. Omnicom went into its results needing to prove a $1.5bn AI-efficiency case. The whole market is now arguing about where AI savings land: in margin, in price, or in headcount.",
      "content_text": "Publicis grew 5% and welcomed a three-horse race at the top. Omnicom went into its results needing to prove a $1.5bn AI-efficiency case. The whole market is now arguing about where AI savings land: in margin, in price, or in headcount.\n\n- Publicis says new business won in 2026 will add 2 points to its 2027 growth.\n- Omnicom doubled its post-IPG synergy target to $1.5bn and said clients \"will pay for results\".\n- Adobe and NVIDIA made AI production faster again, shrinking billable hours in production.",
      "date_published": "2026-10-19T07:00:00Z",
      "date_modified": "2026-11-02T07:00:00Z",
      "tags": [
        "holding companies",
        "agency pricing",
        "value-based pricing",
        "AI enablement",
        "agency new business"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://www.corisleachman.com/agency-brief/agencies-sell-the-machine-and-the-guardrails/",
      "url": "https://www.corisleachman.com/agency-brief/agencies-sell-the-machine-and-the-guardrails/",
      "title": "Agencies are selling the machine, and the guardrails around it",
      "summary": "Advertising Week New York became a showcase for agentic media. Stagwell rebuilt a media agency around software, Tinuiti opened its measurement data to clients' own AI agents, and the agency pitch moved from \"we use AI\" to \"we govern it\".",
      "content_text": "Advertising Week New York became a showcase for agentic media. Stagwell rebuilt a media agency around software, Tinuiti opened its measurement data to clients' own AI agents, and the agency pitch moved from \"we use AI\" to \"we govern it\".\n\n- Stagwell retired its Assembly brand and relaunched it around an agentic media operating system.\n- Independent Tinuiti made its cross-channel measurement available to clients' own AI tools.\n- Clients are buying oversight and control: tiers of human approval, not full automation.",
      "date_published": "2026-10-12T07:00:00Z",
      "date_modified": "2026-11-02T07:00:00Z",
      "tags": [
        "AI enablement",
        "agentic media",
        "agency positioning",
        "agency M&A",
        "agency new business"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://www.corisleachman.com/agency-brief/holdco-president-calls-time-on-fte-pricing/",
      "url": "https://www.corisleachman.com/agency-brief/holdco-president-calls-time-on-fte-pricing/",
      "title": "A holdco president calls time on FTE pricing, in public",
      "summary": "Horizon's Bob Lord called hours-based agency pricing \"the old system\" from a stage in Manhattan. Independents kept winning on specialism, and Advertising Week opened with AI out of the pilot phase and the CFO in the room.",
      "content_text": "Horizon's Bob Lord called hours-based agency pricing \"the old system\" from a stage in Manhattan. Independents kept winning on specialism, and Advertising Week opened with AI out of the pilot phase and the CFO in the room.\n\n- Horizon Media's president predicted clients will stop accepting FTE pricing within five years.\n- Independents won category-specific mandates and bought niche capability rather than building it.\n- At Advertising Week, buyers wanted AI tied to a cost or outcome number.",
      "date_published": "2026-10-05T07:00:00Z",
      "date_modified": "2026-11-02T07:00:00Z",
      "tags": [
        "agency pricing",
        "agency new business",
        "agency M&A",
        "AI enablement",
        "principal media"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://www.corisleachman.com/agency-brief/ai-cost-breaking-the-agency-retainer/",
      "url": "https://www.corisleachman.com/agency-brief/ai-cost-breaking-the-agency-retainer/",
      "title": "AI's cost line is breaking the agency retainer",
      "summary": "AI moved from pitch theatre into plumbing this week. Omnicom signalled it will bill AI compute to clients, WPP opened an AI production centre in London, and DMEXCO declared the experimenting phase over. Independents are splitting between industrial throughput and human judgement.",
      "content_text": "AI moved from pitch theatre into plumbing this week. Omnicom signalled it will bill AI compute to clients, WPP opened an AI production centre in London, and DMEXCO declared the experimenting phase over. Independents are splitting between industrial throughput and human judgement.\n\n- Omnicom's CFO signalled AI token costs will be billed to clients separately.\n- WPP opened a 34,000 sq ft AI production centre in East London.\n- Independent studios are choosing sides: AI-scaled delivery, or a premium on human craft.",
      "date_published": "2026-09-28T07:00:00Z",
      "date_modified": "2026-11-02T07:00:00Z",
      "tags": [
        "agency pricing",
        "AI enablement",
        "agency positioning",
        "agency M&A"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://www.corisleachman.com/agency-brief/coke-pepsi-reshuffle-data-over-creative/",
      "url": "https://www.corisleachman.com/agency-brief/coke-pepsi-reshuffle-data-over-creative/",
      "title": "The Coke and Pepsi reshuffle: big accounts now move on data and conflict",
      "summary": "The year's two biggest media reviews were decided by portfolio conflict and by who runs the client's data and tech, with creative firepower a secondary factor. Meanwhile the holding-company tier is splitting in two, and AI is forcing agencies to rethink hourly pricing.",
      "content_text": "The year's two biggest media reviews were decided by portfolio conflict and by who runs the client's data and tech, with creative firepower a secondary factor. Meanwhile the holding-company tier is splitting in two, and AI is forcing agencies to rethink hourly pricing.\n\n- WPP looks set to keep Coca-Cola's global data and tech mandate after Publicis was conflicted out.\n- Publicis is compounding at a ~17% margin while WPP cuts jobs under its Elevate28 plan.\n- When AI turns a 10-hour task into 2, hourly billing hands the saving straight to the client.",
      "date_published": "2026-09-21T07:00:00Z",
      "date_modified": "2026-11-02T07:00:00Z",
      "tags": [
        "agency new business",
        "pitching",
        "agency pricing",
        "holding companies",
        "AI enablement"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://www.corisleachman.com/agency-brief/publicis-pepsico-win-without-a-pitch/",
      "url": "https://www.corisleachman.com/agency-brief/publicis-pepsico-win-without-a-pitch/",
      "title": "Publicis won PepsiCo without a pitch. What that means for agency new business",
      "summary": "The biggest account move of the month happened with no formal review. Publicis took PepsiCo's global media, walked away from Coca-Cola's, and agencies kept rebuilding delivery around the cost of AI agents.",
      "content_text": "The biggest account move of the month happened with no formal review. Publicis took PepsiCo's global media, walked away from Coca-Cola's, and agencies kept rebuilding delivery around the cost of AI agents.\n\n- Publicis took PepsiCo's ~$1.9bn global media account from Omnicom without a formal pitch.\n- It then withdrew from Coca-Cola's ~$2.6bn review, its sixth declined review of 2026.\n- Agencies are adding token caps and audit logs to keep AI agents from eating margin.",
      "date_published": "2026-09-14T07:00:00Z",
      "date_modified": "2026-11-02T07:00:00Z",
      "tags": [
        "agency new business",
        "pitching",
        "AI enablement",
        "AI governance"
      ]
    }
  ]
}