Media agency leaders confront industry's future as MFA launches strategic review

Australia's media agency leaders have confronted a series of uncomfortable questions about the future of their industry, from the impact of AI and offshoring on jobs to the commercial pressures threatening the value agencies deliver to clients.

Opening this year's MFA EX conference in Sydney, senior executives from WPP Media, Publicis, Omnicom Media and independent agency This Is Flow were challenged on whether agencies are doing enough to protect their people, rethink their operating models and remain relevant to marketers.

The discussion came as MFA CEO Sophie Madden announced a major strategic review of the association, with former agency executive Matt Baxter engaged to examine its role and priorities for the next decade.

“The media industry is changing fundamentally, and the MFA needs to evolve with it,” Madden said.

“We want to hear from you where you think our industry is heading, what excites you, what concerns you, and the future that you want to see.” 

The questions from the floor reflected an industry grappling with rapid technological change and increasing pressure on its commercial model.

‘If you can't win fairly, don't play’

WPP Media Australia and New Zealand CEO Aimee Buchanan delivered one of the session's strongest interventions, calling on agencies to take greater responsibility for undercutting one another in new business pitches.

Responding to a question about whether agencies had accepted an unsustainable business model, Buchanan said the industry needed to rethink how it charges clients.

“If we keep working to a time and resource model, we will end up eroding our own industry,” Buchanan said.

“A big part of this is on us ... when we undercut each other, we're eroding not only our own individual contribution, but we're eroding the industry. And there's way too much of that happening.”

Buchanan said most clients were receptive to sensible discussions about the cost of servicing their business, but those conversations became harder when competing agencies offered cheaper arrangements.

She pointed to work underway at the MFA to develop new commercial models and help agencies better articulate their value to advertisers.

“If you can't win fairly, don't play,” she said.

The changing shape of agency talent

The panel also faced questions about the industry's reliance on offshoring and automation, particularly whether the loss of traditional entry-level roles was creating a succession planning problem.

Buchanan said the capabilities agencies needed were changing, but rejected the suggestion that entry-level opportunities were disappearing altogether.

WPP Media hired 100 entry-level employees this year, she said, although those positions were increasingly emerging in areas such as creator marketing, data technology and GEO rather than traditional agency functions.

Publicis Groupe chief media officer Imogen Hewitt was also challenged on ageism and whether agencies were placing too little value on experience. Hewitt acknowledged that the industry had sometimes confused experience with expense, but argued that greater attention to workforce diversity and measurement was helping agencies address the issue.

She said age should be considered another dimension of diversity that contributes to better thinking and outcomes for clients.

Will CMOs still need agencies in 2030?

The question of agency relevance became more pointed when Hewitt was asked why a CMO would need a media agency in 2030, given the growing ability to buy media directly and use technology to perform traditional agency functions.

Hewitt argued that increasingly complex media ecosystems would strengthen the need for independent strategic advice.

“The more complicated things are, the more that is going to be a requirement, and the more value there will be behind that,” she said.

This Is Flow founder and CEO Jimmy Hyett similarly argued that AI would change agency roles rather than eliminate them, with human thinking and judgement remaining central to the value agencies provide.

Omnicom Media CEO Kristiaan Kroon said agencies needed to place greater emphasis on change management as AI, offshoring and new operating structures reshaped the industry simultaneously.

He said the industry's ability to adapt would depend not only on technology, but on how businesses supported their people through that change.

The discussion also extended to media investment, with Kroon arguing that agencies should consider whether media owners were investing in Australia's content and media ecosystem, rather than focusing solely on whether they were locally or internationally owned.

Buchanan said agencies had a responsibility to educate clients about where their media investment was going and demonstrate the business impact of local content, but stopped short of supporting formal governance requirements around Australian media spending.

The breadth of the discussion underscored the challenge now facing the MFA as it begins its strategic review: an industry being asked to reinvent its commercial model, workforce and proposition to clients while continuing to deliver growth.