The agency marketplace will not look the same 12 months from now. CMOs’ go-to partners for strategy, creative, and media activation are evolving beyond the traditional agency construct, while the number of competitors continues to decrease. Omnicom Group’s acquisition of IPG will make it the largest global marketing company with nearly $70 billion in media billings. Publicis Groupe’s runaway new business success is increasing its market share. WPP’s announced strategic review will restructure its offerings. And now, dentsu has secured M&A partners to identify potential buyers. A possible dentsu sale of its international business will dramatically impact what the agency industry looks like in the future and whether CMOs select among the big three or four.

What Makes Dentsu Attractive?

There are several elements that make dentsu’s operations and assets compelling. The company’s overall market capitalization is close to that of WPP ($5 and $6 billion, respectively). While both lag Omnicom and Publicis significantly, they also far exceed that of Havas and Stagwell, which round out the global competitive set. What would a buyer of dentsu’s assets (agency services in the Americas, EU, and APAC outside Japan) be buying?

  1. Merkle. Dentsu acquired Merkle in 2016 for approximately $1.6 billion. It offers data, analytics, commerce, and technology credentials and capabilities. Its proprietary dataset leveraging physical and digital identifiers has grown globally. Its data is activated through Merkury, a platform for media, creative, and CX. Any marketing services company looking to compete with Publicis, which is equipped with Epsilon and Omnicom (powered by Acxiom and Omni), would benefit from Merkle.
  2. Media. Dentsu’s media capabilities comprise 360i, Carat, iProspect, Vizeum, and dentsu X, which boast significant capabilities in the Americas, APAC, and EU. Clients include BMW, General Motors, ING, Kraft Heinz, Netflix, Proctor & Gamble, and Sonos. Collectively, dentsu’s media manages $27 billion in global billings. Any marketing services company with ambitions to compete with Omnicom, Publicis, and WPP would benefit from the global media scale of dentsu.
  3. Technology and production. Dentsu’s technology stack assembles proprietary technologies and accelerators using partner technology. These include dentsu.Connect, its marketing operating system for apps, data, and workflow. The Merkury suite facilitates ID solutions and CX and media activation. Adobe GenStudio dentsu+ uses Adobe’s enterprise marketing and content solutions combined with dentsu’s data and analytics capabilities. And finally, Tag provides virtual, live production, content supply chain, and AI generation capabilities for content velocity. All of these would be critical assets to compete with Omnicom, Publicis, and WPP.

Which Companies Would Benefit From Purchasing Dentsu?

The companies competing with the big three holding companies range from marketing services to systems integrators to private equity firms. Each would benefit in different ways and from different elements of the dentsu portfolio. Ultimately, time will tell whether Tokyo will find the right strategy and suitor. But for now, here’s my take on buyers and how they benefit:

  • Accenture Song. The global systems integrator would gain advantage from dentsu’s media capabilities. Forrester’s previous evaluations of Accenture Song’s capabilities reflect a relatively modest media capability. Perhaps this is the reason Song hired Dimitri Maex from IPG Mediabrands? While Accenture’s media capabilities would increase from dentsu’s scale, many technology assets would be duplicative. And Accenture gaining possession of a proprietary consumer dataset of digital IDs could conflict with its auditing business as much as it could bolster its CRM.
  • Havas. Havas recently spun off from its parent company, Vivendi, to increase its valuation and shows a robust M&A appetite. “Havas is one of the most acquisitive groups in the industry; we have executed between five to 10 acquisitions every year, for the past 10 years,” says CEO Yannick Bollore. Havas would benefit from all elements of dentsu’s assets. Merkle would provide proprietary data and activation it doesn’t currently possess. Dentsu’s media assets would triple Havas’ media scale to a combined $37 billion. And dentsu.Connect marketing OS and Merkury would bolster Havas’ nascent Converged investments.
  • Private equity. Private equity investment or acquisition is feasible, provided the PE or VC firms were facilitating a holding company sale. Otherwise, it’s more likely that PE would purchase portions of the dentsu portfolio or certain marketplace capabilities. Separating dentsu’s tech from its services devalues both. In other words, decoupling the dentsu marketing OS ecosystem from other agencies decreases the scale of the platform and capabilities of the agencies. This seems less likely.
  • Publicis Groupe. Arthur Sadoun could go for the knockout punch; purchasing dentsu would overtake both Omnicom and WPP. The added dentsu media scale and creative firepower would benefit both Publicis Media and Leo’s growing success. Yet there would be redundancies with Merkle and Sapient; Connect and CoreAI; and Tag and Prodigious. The regulatory hurdles and antitrust concerns would be significant, and Publicis would open itself up to its own criticism of M&A distraction.

While it’s impossible to predict if dentsu will sell and to whom, I’m certain that any reshuffling of dentsu capabilities — in conjunction with Omnicom acquiring IPG and WPP restructuring — will reconfigure the concentration of buying power, access to technology, and the number of CMO partners choices. Such a move will impact future CMO partnerships. What does less competition mean for rosters and relationships? A decade of agency consolidation results in fewer partners handling more and more responsibility. This shifts the relationship dynamic from working with point solution providers with a singular focus on representing your needs to broader entities managing large portfolios of technology and data products, managed services, and technology partnerships. Put simply, your agencies will no longer just be agencies. This has ramifications for the number, remit, and remuneration of your agency ecosystem.

On October 21, 2025, Forrester will publish “Predictions 2026: Marketing Agencies” to further detail these changes and implications for CMOs. In the meantime, Forrester clients can set up a guidance session with me to discuss and prepare for the coming realignment of marketing services providers, capabilities, and technologies.