Coca-Cola Fires and Rehires from Same Holding Company

Diet Coke has hired its fifth creative agency in five years. The latest is Ogilvy, part of WPP's dedicated Coca-Cola unit called Open X, which will now handle the brand's advertising across the UK and wider EMEA region. The brief: build campaigns with a heavy focus on social media and influencer marketing.

On the surface, it looks like a simple agency switch. Look closer and it is a window into the biggest reshuffling of advertising relationships the industry has seen in a generation.

Holding Company Loyalty Collapses to Eight-Year Low

The numbers tell a striking story. Client retention across the global advertising industry fell to just 21% in 2025, the lowest in eight years. More than 4,400 media account moves were tracked, representing US$37.4 billion in annual advertising spend switching hands.

WPP Unifies Commerce Across Agencies Amid Market Shift

WPP launches unified commerce practice to coordinate retail media, shopper marketing, and creative capabilities across agencies as commerce advertising surpasses TV.

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Three forces converged at once: the US$13.5 billion merger between Omnicom and IPG (completed in November 2025), WPP's sweeping internal restructuring, and a growing demand from major advertisers for agencies with real AI capability. Seven in 10 marketing chiefs surveyed by Forrester said they are worried that industrywide restructuring will hurt their business. Many responded by launching defensive agency reviews.

Coca-Cola Fires and Rehires WPP in the Same Year

No company illustrates the new logic better than Coca-Cola. In March 2025, it pulled its US and Canada media account from WPP and handed it to Publicis Groupe. That account was worth approximately US$840 million in annual billings.

Two months later, Coca-Cola renewed its global creative partnership with WPP for every other market. Then in April 2026, Ogilvy (inside WPP) picked up the Diet Coke EMEA creative account.

The same client, in the same period, both firing and rehiring from the same holding company. This is the new logic of major advertiser relationships: unbundle media from creative, run separate reviews, and choose the best partner for each role rather than defaulting to whoever holds the master contract.

Publicis Captures 56% of New Business as WPP Posts Losses

Publicis Groupe captured 56% of all global new business billings in 2025 across nearly 4,000 tracked pitches, winning more than double the accounts WPP secured. It won US$10 billion in new media client billings for the year.

Publicis Media Wins US$10B in New Billings as Market Contracts

Publicis Media captured $10B in new client billings in 2025, ranking #1 globally while the broader pitch market contracted 4%. A breakdown of how the holding group dominated agency new business rankings.

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WPP was the only one of the six major holding companies to post a negative result. It lost US$6.9 billion in media spend, saw full-year revenues fall 8.1%, and shed major clients including Ford, Mars, HSBC, and Pfizer. Its response involves cutting 9,000 jobs and collapsing its three separate media agencies into a single entity called WPP Media.

The Diet Coke win for Ogilvy shows individual agencies within a struggling holding company can still compete on brand creative. The big structural media pitches, however, are going to companies with stronger AI and data platforms.

Agency Roster Reviews Intensify for Marketing Leaders in Asia

For marketing leaders in Asia, the implications are direct. Agency networks worked with for years are being reorganized, senior contacts are moving, and the capabilities on offer are shifting fast. An agency that could not demonstrate AI-powered audience targeting 18 months ago may now lead with it as a core pitch.

Running a rigorous agency review, built around specific capability criteria rather than long-term relationships, has never been more important.

As James Murphy, Chief Executive of Ogilvy UK, said after winning the Diet Coke account: "We're delighted to be working with Diet Coke, an iconic brand with a distinctive voice and place in culture, and excited to help shape its next chapter." Every agency says something similar at the moment of winning. The question worth asking is what happens when the brief changes again.