Media Buying Briefing: Forrester’s Wave report finds growing homogeneity among the 12 biggest agencies

Forrester's latest Wave Report on media agencies reveals that the 12 biggest agencies have become increasingly homogeneous, according to Jay Pattisall, Forrester's VP and senior agency analyst. Despite recent mergers and acquisitions, the differences between the largest agencies have become subtle. The report lists three firms as leaders: the Big Three (Omnicom, Publicis, and WPP), with Dentsu and Havas as strong performers.

Wpromote, PMG, Tinuiti, and Horizon Media make up the contenders category. Independent agencies like Wpromote have a better chance of gaining market share due to their distinct capabilities in agentic media buying and AEO (agentic, owned, earned). Wpromote CEO Andrea Bendzick believes independent agencies are well-positioned to invest in emerging areas, such as AI and measuring visibility, sentiment, and traffic quality.

Publicis declined to comment on the report, but its high average score in strategy (4.4 out of 5) highlights its strengths in media buying, principal media, and data and marketing sciences capabilities. However, the report also criticizes Publicis for lacking tangible pilots, scaled partnerships, and evidence of meaningful client impact in agentic media buying and SEO/AEO.

Omnicom and WPP, two of the Big Three, celebrate their solid rankings as leaders but acknowledge that their stock prices are unrelated to client value.