It was a splashy Monday for the world of advertising: Omnicom announced it would be acquiring its rival Interpublic Group. The merger would create the largest ad firm in the world. In its press release, Omnicom said that through the merger they would be well positioned to grow under the “new era of marketing.” So what era is marketing in, exactly?

After 25 years in advertising, Northeastern University professor Koen Pauwels said the constant change keeps him young.

“Every year we have new technology. We have new platforms that consumers engage with,” he said.

New platforms that connect people and products, said analyst Jeremy Goldman with Emarketer.

“You see the search industry, let’s just say it’s not quite moving away from Google, but the way in which people discover products has changed in a number of different ways, including social search, AI-based search,” he said.

So, staying ahead of the curve is vital. And that can be an advantage of being a mega firm like Omnicom,  said Jon Sharpton with Mintel consulting.

“Often, those companies have an opportunity to sort of adopt and trial new technology that maybe smaller firms don’t have the ability to,” he said.

Whether people work at large or small agencies, it’s important this labor force keeps learning, said Vann Graves, executive director of the Brandcenter at VCU.

“You can’t as an individual stagnate, and so whether it’s upskilling or re-skilling in times of change like this, you have to work on you,” he said.

But he said things like AI and social media are just tools — there’s still nothing quite like that creative spark that happens human to human. 

Clarification (Dec. 10, 2024): This story has been updated with the name of the Brandcenter at VCU.