The dam has officially broken.
A blockbuster new report by Ad Age finds that Omnicom, following Publicis’ decision to audit The Trade Desk over fee transparency, will also pursue its own audit, per a memo to clients.
Whereas the Publicis–TTD situation seemed more contentious, this appears less heated. Ad Age reports the note is framed as “added diligence,” and that Omnicom had already conducted a contractual review and didn’t find anything untoward.
Why This Matters:
Here’s TTD’s stock following the report:
Yes, a significant drop on the news. Clearly, and as expected, the Publicis fallout is continuing, with other agencies — including one as large as Omnicom — taking a closer look at TTD fees.
Per a statement from TTD to Ad Age: “As outlined in Omnicom’s email to clients, Omnicom Media’s analysis and reviews have not uncovered any issues whatsoever.” The statement is notably more cordial than during the Publicis situation.
Will Jeff Green post on LinkedIn, though? We’ll see.
Experts React:
Here are some of the more interesting reactions to the news via X:
Pretty light so far, but we’re sure more opinions are forthcoming. Everyone must be at the NewFronts! We’ll update this as we see more posts.
Our Take:
None of this is surprising. After Publicis moved, it was clear others would follow. Where this ends is unclear — possibly in renegotiated fee structures with TTD. (Maybe that’s the point of all of the back-in-forth, in the end?)
Over the past week, TTD has mounted an aggressive PR push to recover from the Publicis news cycle. This, unfortunately, may put them back at square one.
