Omnicom-IPG is now one company. The tough questions clients should be asking

The merger is official. If you're a client of either group, the agency you've been working with is now inside a restructure. Teams are being assessed, roles are being cut and offices are being merged. And somewhere in a spreadsheet, decisions are being made about your account that you probably haven't been told about yet.
 

Most clients will sit back and wait to be reassured. That's a mistake.

This is the moment to ask direct questions that force clarity about what's actually happening to the people and capabilities you're paying for. If you're not asking, you're assuming. And in a post-merger environment, assumptions are expensive.

Questions about your account

 

Which agency is handling our business from now on—and when will that decision be finalised?

If you're working with overlapping networks (OMD and UM, for example, or TBWA and McCann), chances are that one of them is being absorbed or shut down. You need to know which, and you need to know when. "We're still working through the details" is not an acceptable answer.
 

Who's our main contact, and is that person staying?

The person managing your account today might not be there next quarter. If they're being moved, made redundant, or "transitioned," you need to know now—not when they stop replying to emails.

Are we considered a "conflict" with any other client in the merged group?
 

The newly merged entity now represents your competitors, possibly several of them. If conflict management becomes an issue, you'll either be ring-fenced into a dedicated unit (expensive, slow) or you'll be sitting alongside a rival's team in the same building. Either way, it's your problem to manage, not theirs.
 

Questions about service continuity
 

What's happening to our dedicated team—how many are staying, how many are being moved or cut?

 

Integration means consolidation. That means your team is being assessed for duplication. If half of them are gone by Q2, your service quality collapses. You need numbers, names and a timeline.

Will our day-to-day operations be disrupted during integration?
 

Mergers don't happen in the background. If your agency can't guarantee operational stability during this period, you need to know what the contingency plan is.

What's the timeline for any changes that affect us?

 

"It'll be seamless" is not a timeline. You need actual dates for when team changes are happening, when offices are being merged, and when new reporting structures will be in place. If they can't give you a clear answer, they don't have a plan.
 

Questions about capability
 

Are the specialist capabilities we hired you for being retained or consolidated?

 

If you hired a specific agency for their production capability, their data team, or their strategic expertise, you need to know if that capability still exists as a dedicated function—or if it's being merged into a general pool where your access is no longer guaranteed.
 

Which offices and markets are being merged or closed—does that affect our coverage?
 

London, New York, and other high-cost markets are carrying the most duplication. If your international coverage relies on those offices, and they're being consolidated, your service model just changed. You need to know how.
 

How are you handling knowledge transfer if our team is changing?
 

If the people who understand your brand, your history, and your strategic direction are leaving, how is that knowledge being transferred? Handover documents don't replace institutional memory. If the answer is vague, you're starting from scratch with a new team.
 

Questions about strategy
 

Are cost savings being prioritised over service quality in how decisions are made?

 

The merger was sold on $750 million in savings. Those savings come from somewhere. If cost reduction is driving decisions about your account structure, your team size, or your market coverage, you're not getting the same service you were paying for last year.
 

If we're being moved to a "consolidated" team, what does that actually mean for response times and attention?
 

Consolidation is the polite word for "your dedicated team is being absorbed into a larger unit." That means more clients per person. Slower response times. Less strategic attention. If this is happening, you need to know what the new service model looks like in practice—not in theory.
 

What happens if integration doesn't go smoothly—what's your contingency?
 

Mergers go wrong. People leave faster than expected. Clients get deprioritised. If things don't go to plan, what's the backup? If the answer is "it won't come to that," you're not speaking to someone who's thought it through.
 

The blunt ones
 

Should we be concerned that our competitors are now in the same group?
 

Yes. You should. Even with dedicated units, you're now part of a portfolio where your direct competitors are also clients. That creates structural conflicts that didn't exist before. You need to understand how those are being managed—and whether you're comfortable with the answer.

 

Are we speaking to people who'll still be here in six months?
 

If the people reassuring you about continuity are themselves unsure about their roles, you're not getting the full picture. You need to know who's staying, who's being assessed, and who's already looking for the exit.
 

Is this the right time to review our agency partnerships?
 

Probably. If your agency is distracted by integration, if your team is changing, if capabilities are being consolidated, and if service quality is at risk, you're not getting what you're paying for. That's not disloyalty, that's procurement.
 

What clients should actually do
 

Don't wait for your agency to volunteer information. They won't. They're managing their own chaos.

Ask these questions directly. In writing. With deadlines for answers.
 

If the responses are vague, defensive, or non-committal, that tells you everything you need to know about how much control they actually have over the situation.
 

And if you don't like what you're hearing, this is the moment to ask a different question: why are you still there?
 

The independent alternative
 

Whilst OMG and IPG are spending the next 18 months managing redundancies, office closures and system migrations, independent agencies have always been focusing on the work. Instead of integration chaos and restructure distractions, as a client, you get continuity, attention, speed and accountability.

 

Let me explain. The people you hire are the people who stay. There's no parent company restructure that pulls your team into a different unit or makes them redundant to hit a quarterly savings target.
 

Attention. You're not one of 5,000 clients inside a global portfolio. You're working with a team that has the time and mandate to actually focus on your business.
 

Speed. Decisions don't need three layers of holding company approval. You're working with the people who can actually say yes.
 

Accountability. When something goes wrong, you're speaking to someone who can fix it—not someone who's waiting for guidance from a merged leadership team that's still working out who reports to whom.

 

So, if your agency can't give you clear answers to the questions above, you have options. And right now, whilst the holding companies are distracted, it is the right time to explore them.