The era of the traditional holding company is over. That is how Ralph Pardo, CEO of Omnicom Media Group North America, opened a Digiday Podcast appearance recorded at this year’s Cannes Lions festival — a notable position from an executive at the company that closed a $13.25 billion all-stock acquisition of Interpublic Group in the fall of 2025, creating the largest agency holding company in the world.
His reframing: “We’re not holding anything. We are actually capability companies, is the better way I would describe it.”
Holding companies won business by offering scale, reach, and capabilities under one roof. Automated tools now handle more of the media buying process — execution, optimization, data analysis — which flattens that advantage. It arrives alongside pressures that predate AI: brands wanting more control over their data, faster processes, and clearer sightlines into how their ad dollars work.
Pardo’s read on the competitive picture cuts both ways. “AI is lowering the barriers to entry in almost every category — probably including our own to some degree. But when the barriers to competitive entry are lower, you end up with more competition,” he said. The answer he lands on is differentiation.
In practice that means handing repetitive work to automated tools and moving the agency toward a strategist’s role, plus dismantling the legacy silos separating digital, influencer, and data teams. It also changes who gets hired. Pardo is prioritizing what he calls “M-shaped” people — those who can work across multiple subjects while holding deep expertise in at least two.
“I still see a strong value prop for agencies, for the solutions and services we provide,” Pardo said, “but certainly we’ll be adapting that to meet clients where they need us to go.”
Read more at Digiday.