Agency news you need to know this week

Happy Friday, and welcome back to Agency Brief. This week, we’ve got the exclusive on where McCann New York’s chief growth officer landed, along with some more takeaways from Omnicom Group’s earnings call. Want to be included in a future edition? Reach out to ewan.larkin@adage.com and brian.bonilla@adage.com for consideration. M+C Saatchi North America appoints chief growth officer Suresh Raj, the former chief growth officer at McCann New York, has joined M+C Saatchi North America in the same role. He will be responsible for leading new business and growth as the agency continues its expansion in the U.S. Raj follows a slew of other appointments at the agency, including Nadja Bellan-White as CEO. M+C Saatchi works with clients including JPMorgan Chase, Jaguar, Shipt and The New York Times. Read more: Ad Age Small Agency Conference & Awards FAQ Takeaways from Omnicom’s earnings call Omnicom released its first-quarter earnings on Tuesday, registering 3.4% organic growth during the period and tweaking its 2025 revenue growth forecast “given the uncertainty of the current environment.” There were a few more interesting highlights from the ad giant’s earnings call. Omnicom Chairman and CEO John Wren said the delay on President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs “gives many of our clients the opportunity to acquire more inventory at reasonable prices and … look to front-load sales in the first half of the year.” Wren said he didn’t expect new business reviews to be “as robust” as last year. And, later in the call, he pushed back on the idea that the proposed Interpublic Group of Cos. acquisition will lead to client attrition. “That’s just nonsense fed by my competitors to the trade rags,” he said. ICYMI Starz and Pacific Life Insurance have hired new agencies following competitive reviews. All Access subscribers can read all about it in the Agency Review Tracker, which keeps tabs on all the notable accounts in review. Plus, here are a few of Ad Age’s biggest agency stories this week: BMW broadens an agency’s remit BMW Group has extended its partnership with independent agency network Serviceplan Group through the end of 2027. As part of the new agreement, the company will now handle the production of digital assets, along with “campaign rollouts across Europe for both BMW and Mini,” according to a Serviceplan spokesperson. Serviceplan has managed BMW Group’s performance marketing, analytics, marketing automation, programmatic media and CRM in Europe since 2020. It does so through a bespoke model called “The Marcom Engine.” Quote of the week “We are actually a growing industry.”—Publicis Groupe Chairman and CEO Arthur Sadoun, refuting the notion he has heard from analysts and other experts that advertising as a whole is struggling. Just briefly The Financial Times has appointed independent shop the7stars as its new global media agency partner following a competitive review. WPP’s EssenceMediacom was the incumbent on the account, an FT spokesperson said. Momentum Worldwide, an experiential agency within IPG, promoted Jason Snyder to the new role of global chief AI officer. Snyder will continue to oversee technology and production, according to a Momentum statement. Stagwell shop Wolfgang was named creative and social agency of record for Jägermeister in the U.S without a review. The identity of the incumbent agency was not immediately clear. Here’s the brand’s first work from Wolfgang. Contributing: Brian Bonilla

Agency news you need to know this week

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