The Great Account Shuffle: Who Won, Who Lost, Who Cares
March arrives with its annual blizzard of account moves, and 2026 is no different. Except everything is different. The pitches are faster. The stakes are higher. And the winners are reading from the same playbook—AI, data, "trusted partnerships"—while hoping their version sounds better than everyone else's.
Let's see who moved where.
The Big One: Zoom Goes to PMG
Zoom just hired PMG as its first-ever global media agency of record. That's not a typo—the company that became synonymous with "please mute yourself" never had a consolidated global media partner before. They've been running local market relationships since their pandemic-era explosion, which is either impressively scrappy or completely unsustainable, depending on your perspective.
The selection of PMG—an indie with a tech-forward reputation—over holdco behemoths is notable. Zoom apparently valued agility and digital expertise over global scale and principal media deals. Whether that preference survives their next CFO review remains to be seen.
WPP's Estée Lauder Win
WPP Media landing Estée Lauder's global media business is the kind of win Cindy Rose desperately needed for her Elevate28 credibility tour. The beauty giant had been splitting work among Monks, Assembly, and Brainlabs—a fragmented arrangement that apparently stopped making sense when someone did the math on integration costs.
The win validates WPP's consolidation pitch: one partner, one platform, less overhead. Or at least that's the story. The reality is that Estée Lauder reviews its agency arrangements more often than most people review their car insurance, so "win" might be better described as "temporarily winning."
The Week's Other Moves
Media agencies had a busy week:
Havas landed integrated AOR duties for pharma firm Indivior, adding creative to its media responsibilities. The full-service pitch works better when you can actually deliver full service.
Omnicom's PHD picked up Menarini's Asia Pacific media business. Regional wins matter more as global reviews become less common and more contentious.
Dentsu's Carat successfully defended its Revo fitness account for another three years. In the current environment, defense is offense. Just ask WPP.
Horizon Media's Horizon Next won media AOR duties for American Residential Services, the HVAC and plumbing company you've never heard of but definitely spent money on last winter.
Stagwell's Assembly picked up Jabra's paid media business, including Amazon services, while fellow Stagwell agency Gale won integrated work for Embrace pet insurance. The independent holding company continues its quiet accumulation of mid-market accounts.
Independent Novus won media planning and buying for A&W Restaurants. Fast food and indie agencies: a pairing that makes more sense than you'd think.
Reading the Tea Leaves
What do these moves tell us? A few things:
First, fragmented agency arrangements are getting expensive. The overhead of managing multiple partners—each with their own data stack, reporting framework, and internal politics—is pushing clients toward consolidation. WPP's bet that simplification sells appears to be working, at least in the pitch room.
Second, AI is now table stakes in reviews. Every agency has an AI story. The question is whether clients can tell the difference between genuine capability and PowerPoint promises. Based on the wins going to shops with demonstrated tech chops, some can.
Third, defense matters. In a landscape where everyone's restructuring and clients are nervous, keeping existing business is as important as winning new business. Carat's Revo defense and similar quiet renewals don't make headlines, but they make revenue.
What to Watch
The Jaguar Land Rover decision, expected by end of March, will be the next big signal. WPP is in exclusive negotiation for global creative and marketing duties, with an outcome-based fee structure that could set precedent for the industry. If they close it on those terms, expect every holdco earnings call for the next year to reference "outcome-based partnerships."
Until then, the great account shuffle continues. May your pitch decks be short, your chemistry meetings be genuine, and your procurement contacts be reasonable.
