How did Publicis win PepsiCo without a pitch?
What changedPepsiCo moved its global media account to Publicis, ending Omnicom's roughly two-decade hold, with no formal competitive review. MediaPost puts the assignment at ~$1.9bn; Digiday puts Publicis's net revenue gain nearer $1.1bn once existing APAC business is counted. CEO Arthur Sadoun described it as a repeatable model: "in some cases, actually, we are not pitching anymore and winning." It is the fourth major account landed this way in about a year, after LVMH, Microsoft and Paramount, and it grew from a foothold: Publicis built PepsiCo China from 2022 into the global "One PepsiCo" unit.
Why it mattersThe marquee new business event of 2026 was a win with no pitch. The review, the deck and the chemistry meeting are being routed around at the top of the market in favour of senior relationships and proof on a live account. Capability shown on real work is beating capability claimed in a room.
Why turning down a $2.6bn review was the confident move
What changedDays after the PepsiCo win, Publicis withdrew from Coca-Cola's global media review, roughly $2.6bn in annual spend outside North America, Japan and Korea, because holding PepsiCo made Coke a conflict (Campaign US). WPP became the effective front-runner. Publicis says it has declined six competitive reviews in 2026, suspecting they were price-led decisions it did not want to win on (Adweek).
Why it mattersChoosing which pitches to skip, on conflict, price or winnability, is now a positioning signal in its own right. Selectivity reads as strength. Entering every review reads as a commodity. For independents the transferable lesson is discipline: senior time is the scarcest thing an agency has, and a clear go/no-go rule protects it.
Does scale protect an incumbent agency any more?
What changedOmnicom shares fell about 5% on the news, closing at $81.76 on 2 September, and recovered about 2% the next day (Campaign US). Barclays estimated the hit at around $100m a year in fee income. Omnicom kept PepsiCo's creative through BBDO and TBWA and pointed to recent wins at Adidas, Dyson and Uber, all while still integrating IPG.
Why it mattersA two-decade relationship and a landmark merger did not protect the account, and Omnicom reportedly learned of the decision hours before it went public. Incumbency has to be re-earned. Defending and growing current clients is a core new business discipline, and for most agencies it is the biggest pipeline they have.
The real AI story inside agencies is cost control
What changedMedia agencies are re-engineering delivery around the cost of AI agents (Digiday). Rise (Quad) is testing media-buying agents with a supermarket client, using PubMatic's audit logs to catch drift. Brainlabs runs tiered token access. Dept built an "AI gateway" that removes over-powered model choices. PMG sets daily per-user token caps. A Gartner survey of 1,300 marketers cited in the same piece found 56% deploy AI with no clear policy.
Why it mattersThis is what AI adoption inside agencies looks like right now: budgets, guardrails and audit trails rather than headline reinvention. The margin story of AI is being decided by usage controls, and more than half the market has no policy at all.
Amazon is selling ads inside ChatGPT
What changedAmazon opened its DSP to OpenAI's ChatGPT ad surface from 10 September, with Delta Vacations among the first US testers (Digiday, CNBC). Amazon is competing on fees and first-party shopping data. Analysts still flag gaps in measurement and formats, so Q4 is a foundation rather than proof.
Why it mattersAttention is moving into conversational AI, and the buying infrastructure is being built ahead of the evidence. Clients will ask "what's our plan for AI surfaces?" before most agencies have a rehearsed answer. That gap between client demand and agency capability is where a well-prepared agency wins the brief.
Which of these an agency should act on, and how, depends on where its pipeline comes from today. That is the conversation I have with agency owners, and it is what the call is for.