By: CLC Editorial Staff
The retail media boom has reshaped how brands spend marketing dollars, and agencies are jockeying to position themselves as indispensable partners. But as the lines blur between media buyers and media sellers, one uncomfortable reality is surfacing: many holding companies aren’t just guiding clients’ ad budgets—they’re also steering those dollars into their own programmatic media businesses.
At its core, the issue is simple. Agencies are supposed to act as neutral advisors, helping brands maximize return on investment by choosing the most effective partners. Yet some of the biggest holding companies now own demand-side platforms (DSPs), supply-side platforms (SSPs), and other ad tech firms that profit directly from the same media dollars they recommend allocating.
Take Publicis Groupe. Beyond its well-known agencies (Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett, Starcom, and most recently Mars United), Publicis owns Epsilon and CitrusAd—platforms that directly sell and manage retail media inventory. When a CPG brand asks Publicis for an “objective” media plan, how much of that plan is subtly shaped by the incentive to funnel spend through Publicis’s own pipes?
Dentsu tells a similar story. Alongside agencies like Carat and Merkle, Dentsu operates its own programmatic buying platforms and data solutions. The company isn’t just advising on where media should go—it’s also in the business of monetizing the very channels it may recommend.
This isn’t to say that these platforms are ineffective. In fact, Epsilon and Merkle have strong technology stacks and legitimate value for advertisers. The conflict arises in the dual role: can a holding company both objectively steward client budgets and profitably run its own walled gardens?
For brands, the takeaway isn’t to distrust agencies altogether, but to ask sharper questions.
- Transparency: Which platforms are recommended because they’re best in class—and which because the agency holding company owns them?
- Measurement: Are KPIs and reporting frameworks independent, or tied to the performance metrics of in-house platforms?
- Optionality: Do you have a true menu of partner options, or are you being nudged into a closed loop the agency controls?
As retail media matures, scrutiny of these conflicts will only grow. Brands are under pressure to prove incremental sales lift and avoid waste, while agencies are under pressure to keep margins intact. When those forces collide, the client’s best interests can get murky.
The future likely isn’t about agencies giving up their platforms—it’s about brands demanding clarity. With billions in spend on the line, “trust us” won’t cut it anymore. Neutrality and transparency should be non-negotiable, even if the agency also wears a publisher’s hat.