The Omnicom Advertising chief explains why BBDO, TBWA and McCann will anchor the group’s creative offering as DDB, FCB and MullenLowe are retired by 2026.
Ruhanen spoke to The Drum on the day staff began learning about the fates of their agencies and jobs after Omnicom completed its takeover of IPG. He said the final structure emerged quickly as the leadership team measured Omnicom and IPG’s creative agency networks against a set of criteria in the world’s biggest advertising markets.
Broadly, he said, this came down to presence in the markets that matter most to Omnicom’s global clients and how well-defined each network’s proposition was.
“You do that analysis pretty quickly. You come to a conclusion,” Ruhanen said. Meeting agencies globally reinforced the decision. “There are lots of good things happening inside agencies in different parts of the world,” he said. “But with that criteria, it starts to reveal itself.”
Why BBDO, TBWA and McCann made the cut
Commentators have been quick to point out that the axed brands, DDB, FCB, and MullenLowe, collectively possess almost 300 years of agency heritage. Ruhanen, though, stressed that legacy played no role in determining which networks survived.
“McCann’s 113 years old. BBDO is 97 years old, and TBWA is 55 years old. If you want experience, we’ve got more than enough,” he said. “So it is not a question of age and legacy. It is just a question of relevance. And I believe that those brands [McCann, TBWA and BBDO] are just more relevant to where we want the world to go.”
Ruhanen said the three surviving global networks were the “most ever present” in key markets and the most sharply positioned. McCann brings its long-standing ‘truth well told’ positioning, TBWA brings its global ‘disruption’ philosophy, and BBDO has recently – and in Ruhanen’s eyes successfully – refreshed its proposition with ‘we do big things.’
Why DDB and FCB did not meet the criteria
The retirement of DDB, FCB and MullenLowe has prompted an emotional outpouring across the industry, particularly given DDB was named Cannes Lions Network of the Year in 2025 and FCB’s recent creative momentum (its New York office was named most-awarded creative agency in the world in this year’s World Creative Rankings).
Ruhanen said he understood the attachment but argued the new structure demanded a different set of priorities.
“It’s pride in the jersey. Some people have been working for those companies for a very long period of time, and I admire that,” he said. “I want people to feel passionate about the brands that they are working for. But it does not meet the criteria that we were looking for.
“Winning at Cannes is one thing. Winning in the market is another.”
A decision of greater consternation was whether to retain echoes of the historic agencies by combining names, as has been the case in other holding companies that have gone through similar mergers. “Some people were very eager to keep those names alive,” said Ruhanen. “And to be very frank, it was me that was pushing hardest back that no, we want to be very clear about which brand you’re working for. We don’t want confusion for incoming employees about which brand was the one and what was going to be the guiding philosophy.
“That was probably the hardest point to get through to the organizations. That, no, we’re making the choice, and the choice is this brand, this methodology. I can understand their pride in those organizations and wanting to see the history continue, that name continue. But I think we’ve seen from our competitors that that really didn’t serve them very well when there was brands being put together and a little bit of confusion about who’s in charge.”
Teams in place by 1 January
Although Omnicom announced that the full agency consolidation will conclude by mid-2026, Ruhanen wants to move faster wherever practicalities allow.
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“We really want to move on January 1. We want to move people into spaces and get them there,” he said. “The truth is, we expect some people to start acting that way today.”
He said the streamlined agency structure was intentionally created to reduce distraction and accelerate transition.
“The trick with these scenarios – and I have been through a few mergers in my life – is we’ve got to very quickly be on [clients’] business and not about us,” he said. “Have the teams that are necessary focus on that, have everyone else focusing on our clients and stop discussing us.
“And that is why the brand, why the methodology, was really important: because then [staff] were not about trying to discover a new platform and how we are going to describe ourselves, and what is the new design system, and what is the blah, blah, blah… which is when you see agencies get very heavily distracted,” he said.
Clients’ top concern: their teams
Ruhanen said Omnicom’s leadership are being “very upfront” with clients about how the agency decisions will impact them.
“Their number one concern always has been, ‘What happens to my team?’” he said. “We have made sure we have done a very strong analysis. Sometimes we cannot bring everyone over because it is so obvious, particularly at the senior levels, where there is duplication. But then you offer them something better, and you talk to them about that.”
Client conflicts have not been a material concern, Ruhanen said, but advertisers have expressed the importance of data sensitivity. “They are sometimes wanting to make sure their information is being managed appropriately,” he said. “We understand the sensitivity of information. For us, that is paramount.”
A ‘sad day’ for staff
The interview took place on Monday as many US-based staff were learning whether they would be among the 4,000 employees laid off before the end of the year.
“Today is a sad day, but it is a day in which people – as many as we possibly can – we are able to tell them what the future looks like,” Ruhanen said. He acknowledged that the timing so close to the holidays is unfortunate but unavoidable due to the deal closing on the eve of Thanksgiving.
“People worked all weekend, all night, etc, so that we could really make sure that we can get to these people quickly,” he adds.
Ruhanen noted that industry turnover remains a fact of agency life irrespective of mergers. “On average, we lose 17% of our workforce during a given year. There is going to be turnover regardless,” he said. “But I think our chances of recruiting the next best level of talent get even greater because of what we have on offer now at Omnicom.”
Ruhanen also acknowledged that competitors were already attempting to poach staff. “Our competitors are always trying to take our people out… they do not have anywhere near the depth that we have,” he said. “We are not afraid of that, because there is plenty more behind us.”
Boutique agencies remain key to the model
Even as large networks consolidate, Omnicom will maintain a varied ecosystem of boutique agencies through the Omnicom Advertising Collective.
“We really are able to provide, at a moment’s notice, lots of options,” Ruhanen said. “There are certain clients that are very attracted to Lucky’s that are not attracted to TBWA or BBDO or McCann.”
“When you can say all three of your agencies are growing and they meet different needs, it tells you that you have the right formula,” he said. “You are not just trying to solve the one thing.”
Although not a boutique agency, since it was already part of DDB, Adam&Eve’s merger with TBWA\London is eye-catching, given its famously distinctive brand and emotional advertising reputation. Ruhanen said Omnicom assessed whether it could remain standalone.
“Of course. I mean we go through that analysis and say, OK, what should we do with that? Should we just leave it in London by itself?” he said.
But Adam&Eve’s long experience operating within a network, and the compatibility of its ‘feelings first’ platform with TBWA’s disruption philosophy, shaped the decision.
“They have already been attuned to working within a network,” he said. “They have been part of a network. They have not lost their identity while doing that.”
“They have a platform called ‘feelings first’ and inside of that platform, you know, that is a way of being disruptive,” he added. “We felt like that was something they could marry quite well together. And we are actually seeing whether there is an opportunity to extend that further in other places.”
As the industry and Omnicom and IPG’s combined workforce process the scale of change, Ruhanen remains bullish about what comes next. “I think there’s a more secure and promising future here than there is in other places,” he said.
And right now? “We focus on how we’re bringing the teams together, and we stay on our clients.”
