Omnicom’s drive to “reduce middlemen” is showing up in how its agencies talk to publishers – albeit mostly behind closed doors. Buyers within the Omnicom holding group are being “heavily encouraged” to route more spend directly to publishers, rather than through layers of ad tech, according to two supply-side sources with knowledge of the situation.
That kind of rhetoric isn’t wholly new to publishers, who have heard versions of “we’re trying to put more money your way” for years. What has changed, according to an exec, is the candor: they had “never heard an agency so openly admit” it is actively steering away from parts of the ad tech chain, before.
Omnicom buyers are also indicating that working with ad tech owned by a publisher “ticks a really big box” as they reassess which partners fit that strategy, said the exec.
That message is coming across on both sides of the Atlantic, with Omnicom buyers talking more about direct paths to publisher inventory and trimming the number of intermediaries in the chain.
So far though, the impact is more visible in conversations than in the numbers. Publishers aren’t convinced it will translate into a material shift – if any at all – in where the money goes.
