Margins Over Meaning: What Are We Really Selling?

By: Christian Wojciechowski, SVP Creative & Strategy

I decided to listen to the Omnicom Q4/FY 2025 earnings call today and hear how they feel the takeover (they might call it a “partnership” although partnerships don’t usually result in over 4,000 layoffs with more to come) is returning what they had hoped.

It opened with discussions about AI and how CMOs are excited about the newest technologies and how they will be used by agencies for creative and interacting with the consumer. It spoke about the brands in their portfolio and how policing their core brand values should be viewed with the stories told by the brand strategies.

Ahhh, I’m kidding.

Through a creative’s lens, the consumers’ needs were never discussed. In fact, the “customer” was only brought up 8 minutes into a run-on sentence about metrics, margins, yields, and shareholder returns. Not one single CMO asked a question, not one brand manager asked a question, not one single question was asked about a single campaign success within the IPG portfolio. The only questions asked were from banks like Wells Fargo and Citi about what you’dguess.

And I get it, quarterly calls are not supposed to be inspiring. They’re supposed to be dry. Measured. Financial. But why not?

But we’ve gotten way too good at talking about what we extract and very quiet about what we create.

There were discussions about efficiencies, headcount reductions, integration synergies, AI optimization, yield improvements, and shareholder return. There was talk of “unlocking value” but nothing about unlocking imagination.

Not once did they speak about what they produce. Not once did they speak about protecting or elevating the creative product that once defined us as an industry. They spoke of more “heads” being eliminated because of AI. More pain is coming. They mentioned exploring more efficiencies by firing people instead of exploring how to tell better stories, how to create better concepts and ideas that made this industry great.

This business didn’t begin in a boardroom. It began with people who believed ideas could move culture.

Stan Richards started in 1953 coming from Pratt and created one of the greatest creative shops in the world.

Wieden + Kennedy opened, funny enough, on April Fool’s day (so the story goes) and focused on a waffle griddle pattern (literally) soled sneaker. A relationship now forged in the historybooks forever.

And The Martin Agency (1965) focused on “Creative Excellence.” Period.

The relationships built inside those walls between creatives, account, and our brand side partners were real, you could feel the respect and trust between colleagues. I know, I was there. Working from Portland, to Texas, and the East coast, nothing felt different. Culture, food, music, of course the differences were there, but creating something intuitive, heartfelt, and life changing… we all sang from the same hymnal.

We should explore imagination before we explore automation.

We should measure meaning before we measure margin.

The key to success in our new era? Find CMO partners who truly believe in and rely on the agency vision, understanding that we only exist to make them look good. Feels impossible in this environment of Wall Street-driven consolidation.

Independent agencies entering their next chapter must double down on building and protecting direct, outcome-measured client relationships outside holding company bureaucracy. The goal isn’t to be another margin machine, but to remain the creative engine brands can’t afford to lose.

Only then will a quarterly conference sound like something that fulfills purpose on both sides of the aisle.