To underline this, it has now emerged at the center of a regulatory storm that could shape the fate of Madison Avenue’s largest-ever (proposed) merger: Omnicom’s proposed $13.5 billion acquisition of Interpublic Group.

The deal took a major step forward last week after the Federal Trade Commission issued a conditional approval. But the green light came with a caveat: the combined entity is barred from steering client ad dollars away from publishers based on their political or ideological content — unless specifically instructed by the client.

This 10-year “consent order” is unusual, as such unions usually require divestitures. However, this order introduces an element of federal oversight of how the largest U.S. media agency can approach content-related media buying — historically a matter for brands and their agencies, not regulators.

The FTC’s mandate prohibits Omnicom-IPG from using exclusion lists to filter out ideological content unless requested by a client. Additionally, Omnicom must illustrate how it upholds the new neutrality standard.

Broader impact

Executives at both companies have welcomed the FTC’s nod. But analysts and industry observers warn the order could give federal administrations indirect influence over which media outlets receive ad dollars. For Omnicom, the ruling introduces new operational and legal hurdles when applying brand safety measures, potentially putting it at a disadvantage to rivals like WPP, Publicis Groupe, and Dentsu, who currently face no such restrictions.

Though the consent order applies only to Omnicom-IPG, its broader impact is hard to ignore. Some expect other agencies to proactively adopt similar safeguards — or rebrand their practices altogether — to avoid being next in the regulatory crosshairs.

The political backlash against brand safety — a term that once evoked purely technical concerns like avoiding violent or adult content — has now overtaken the entire industry. As Business Insider reported on July 6, scrutiny from Congress, lawsuits and the FTC’s consent order have brought the issue to a boil.

The 2024 shutdown of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media further underscored how fraught the debate has become. What began as a benign effort to keep ads away from objectionable material has morphed into a high-stakes fight over free speech, bias, and who gets to set the rules in digital advertising.

Ironically, while the FTC’s order is designed to curb political bias in ad placement, it may have the opposite effect: encouraging agencies to avoid political or hard news content altogether to stay out of trouble. Without a clear FTC definition of “ideological content,” the order risks stifling coverage and further starving news outlets of ad revenue. Even mainstream publishers have long struggled with blunt brand safety filters that block articles on complex topics due to simple keyword triggers.

This once-obscure ad tech issue has now become a major fault line in the broader battle over corporate influence, speech moderation and regulatory reach. The question at the heart of it: Should Madison Avenue or the U.S. government control which media environments are deemed appropriate for advertising?

Pending integration questions

Meanwhile, leadership changes within Omnicom further point to potential complexity within Omnicom Media Group, should the merger receive the ultimate green light.

The upcoming departure of Slavi Samardzija, CEO of OMG’s Annalect, has raised eyebrows. Set to leave in September, Samardzija played a key role in developing Omni — Omnicom’s signature operating system — and in building the data culture that helped win major clients, including Amazon’s $6 billion Americas media account.

His successor, Annalect president Adam Gitlin, will bring continuity, but the timing has fueled speculation about broader restructuring as Omnicom inches closer to merging with IPG. Internally, signs of consolidation are already visible, such as standardizing email domains across business units — a move interpreted as a shift toward greater centralization.

Analysts believe integrating Annalect with IPG’s Acxiom will be key to delivering on the merger’s promised $750 million in annual cost synergies. Both units are foundational to each company’s first-party data and identity resolution strategies, but they’ve historically operated independently. Aligning them under unified leadership will be essential for streamlining operations and meeting clients’ increasingly sophisticated expectations.

While Gitlin’s elevation reassures some, Samardzija’s departure may mark a strategic turning point. The integration of Annalect and Acxiom — and how it’s managed — will likely serve as a bellwether for the post-merger entity’s broader direction. As the advertising industry enters a new era of regulatory scrutiny and political sensitivity, all eyes will remain fixed on how Omnicom-IPG navigates the intersection of data, media and ideology.

Perhaps we’ll find out more as both holding companies’ leadership teams are scheduled to reveal their latest quarterly performance figures in the coming days – Omnicom on July 15 and IPG on June 22.

What we’ve heard

“There probably wasn’t much other choice for a liquidity event, publisher businesses are finding it really hard.”

— A Digiday source who requested anonymity comments on last week’s sale of Sourcepoint, a company that raised close to $50 million over the previous 10 years, to rival consent management platform Didomi. The transaction took place for a publicly undisclosed sum, with some interpreting it as a private equity roll-up given that Marlin Equity Partners took an $83 million stake in the CMP provider earlier this year. 

What we’ve covered:

Vista Equity Partners’ TripleLift implements ‘significant’ layoffs

TripleLift enacted significant layoffs across departments and regions, reportedly impacting dozens of roles, as it braces for ongoing economic headwinds and reduced ad spend forecasts. The move follows leadership turnover and broader cost-cutting trends in ad tech, which have emerged during the period since TripleLift’s sale to Vista Equity Partners in a deal that valued it at $1.4 billion in 2021. 

Generative AI, not ad tech, is the new antitrust battleground for Google

Independent publishers have filed complaints with EU and UK regulators, accusing Google’s AI Overviews of scraping content without consent and penalizing those who opt out by reducing search visibility. They demand the right to opt out without ranking loss and fair compensation, with the case signaling a shift in antitrust scrutiny from ad tech to AI. 

What we’re reading

Here’s How Much Adtech CEOs Made in 2024 

Hat-tip to Adweek’s Paul Hiebert, who looked up the data of how publicly listed ad tech companies compensate their CEOs to find that Unity Software’s Matthew Bromberg was top of the pack with more than $52 million in salary, bonuses, and awarded stock options. This compares to the media figure of $16.4 million for S&P 500 CEOs.

U.K. broadcasters’ YouTube strategies are delivering significant reach and viewership

U.K. broadcasters have started more wholly embracing YouTube as a distribution platform, with Ipsos iris, which measures online audiences, suggesting that these strategies are paying off in delivering significant extra reach and viewership. The measurement company says that ITV, Channel 4, the BBC, and Sky collectively saw a significant jump in YouTube viewership in May. 

Google tries to win over publishers amid AI search tensions

Google is increasing investment in its publisher-side adtech unit, Google Ad Manager, aiming to attract more big advertisers amid rising publisher frustration. Rival platforms’ popularity has driven down ad prices for Google Ad Manager users, writes The Information’s Catherine Perloff. The move follows mounting tension over Google’s AI overviews and declining search traffic to publisher sites. 

IPA urges agencies to rethink billing structure amid ‘limited’ progress toward outcome-based pricing

A new IPA report reveals that despite widespread agreement on the need to move beyond time-based pricing models, actual adoption of outcome-based approaches remains minimal. Entrenched FTE models and lack of execution are key barriers. While 75% of advertisers plan to reform compensation models, only 27% of agencies feel fairly paid, highlighting a pressing gap between intent and action.