Omnicom India team on edge as media structure announcement unlikely before Jan

Sleepless nights, restless phone calls and texts during the day have become routine for hundreds of employees across Omnicom and Interpublic Group (IPG) agencies in India even as they continue reporting to office and are being told to maintain “business as usual.”

While the global merger between the two US-based holding companies, formalised on November 26, is being positioned as the most significant realignment the advertising world has seen in decades, the absence of clarity on India’s new organisational structure—especially on the media side—even after two weeks has triggered deep anxiety among staffers. 

“We go to the office and work from home as per the earlier roster even as we are clueless about our own future or the future of our company. There has been no communication to us from higher ups,” several staffers at IPG and Omnicom told e4m. 

Another staffer said, “We have been seeking clarity and disclosure of timelines for the transition since December 1 but to no avail. This is strange that the companies working in the communication business go completely silent when it comes to their own staff.”

Top leadership across brands face a tough time explaining and motivating the staff everyday as they themselves are clueless over the new hierarchy, upcoming layoffs and even existence of certain agency brands, said an executive. There is no clarity over the structure and leadership of Outdoor agency (Rapport of IPG), healthcare agencies (Heart and Science of Omnicom) and Global Capability Centres (IPG) either.  

Agency brands and their India heads await confirmation about their prospects. This includes IPG agencies Initiative Media (CEO Vaishali Verma), Lodestar UM (CEO Aditi Mishra), Interactive Avenues (CEO Shantanu Sirohi), and Rapport (headed by Vinkoo Chakraborty). On Omnicom’s side, the list includes OMD (CEO Anisha Iyer), PHD (CEO Monaz Todywalla), and Hearts & Science (CEO Rochelle Chhaya).

So far, Omnicom has announced only two top leaders for the media agency ecosystem–Kartik Sharma as CEO and Amardeep Singh (IPG) as COO of Omnicom Media in India. Even these roles, announced on December 1, will be effective from January 1, insiders say. 

Many fear that the final structure, potential role rationalisation, alignment and layoffs if any, may only be announced in January, once the Christmas–New Year shutdown in the US ends and global teams return to work.

e4m earlier reported that as Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG triggers the winding down of certain creative brands–the narrative around media agencies may be less dramatic than early speculation suggested. All IPG-owned media agencies and their leadership teams are likely to be retained—albeit under rebranded identities aligned with Omnicom’s global architecture. However, there has been no official communication in this regard so far to India staff. 

An email sent to Omnicom’s global and India teams seeking clarity on the new media-ecosystem structure and the transition timelines remained unanswered at the time of writing. This copy will be updated if and when the company responds.

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Prasoon Joshi to lead Omnicom Advertising India as Chairman

Dheeraj Sinha to be CEO, McCann Worldgroup India, in the merged Omnicom-IPG group

Partial clarity in creative ecosystem 

Creative agencies of both the groups, three each, have at least seen partial clarity. Names of top leaders for the integrated creative networks have been announced, and six creative brands have been consolidated under three brand names (McCann, BBDO and TWBA/Lintas) by retiring Mullen Lowe and FCB (IPG) and DDB (Omnicom). 

Prasoon Joshi has been appointed Chairman and Aditya Kanthy as President & Managing Director, Omnicom Advertising India. Dheeraj Sinha and Rahul Mathew will lead McCann, while Josy Paul continues at the helm of BBDO India. Govind Pandey and Prateek Bhardwaj will head the merged TBWA\Lintas operation. Nitin Karkare takes charge as Chairman of Ulka while Chandni Shah takes over as CEO of the combined Kinnect and 22feet Tribal unit. 

But even there, middle and junior employees remain in limbo.  

Media ecosystem more complex 

The tension is far more pronounced in the media ecosystem—by far the larger and more complex piece of the puzzle. Media agency networks employ nearly twice as many people as the creative side, involve deeper operational overlaps, and require far more intricate alignment of processes, tools, and client contracts. “This is where the real impact will be felt—who stays, who moves, and who may eventually have to leave,” said an executive at one of the agencies, referring to the inevitable consolidation ahead.

For the workforce on both sides, the scale of the challenge is enormous. IPG’s media agencies in India have a combined headcount of about 1,200, while Omnicom Media Group employs around 500. Add the creative and specialised units across both networks, and several hundred more jobs come into play.

As one agency leader put it, “Everyone knows this will be the biggest integration in Indian advertising in a decade. The question is not whether change is coming, but how quickly and how deeply it will cut.”

What are on cards?

Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG has triggered widespread cuts to employee benefits in the U.S., alongside layoffs and restructuring, according to an Adweek investigation based on internal handbooks, benefits documents and interviews with former IPG staff.

The biggest change is to retirement benefits: IPG’s predictable per-paycheck 401(k) match has been replaced by Omnicom’s discretionary annual match, leaving employees unsure of both timing and amount.

Time-off policies have also been sharply reduced. IPG’s extensive system—which included unlimited PTO at many agencies, holiday-week shutdowns, wellness days and additional observances—has been replaced by a fixed 10–15 days of vacation annually, a drop employees estimate at over 60%. A rule denying holiday pay if vacation is taken next to a holiday has added to frustrations.

Parental leave has been cut from IPG’s flexible system that could stretch to six months to a flat 10 weeks of continuous paid leave. Healthcare costs are rising too. Staff are being shifted to Aetna plans employees describe as pricier with less favourable coverage.

A stricter return-to-office mandate—three days a week now, moving toward five—ties compliance to raises, promotions and even severance eligibility. Severance terms have tightened dramatically: IPG’s 20–30-week packages for long-tenured employees have been replaced with a 12-week cap. With more than 4,000 layoffs already confirmed, many employees believe the new policies are pushing voluntary exits.

India’s “absorption-first” culture may delay visible cuts

Globally, consolidation will translate into swift layoffs. India, however, will follow a different approach. A senior industry veteran with decades in creative leadership told e4m that as traditionally “lenient during global shake-ups,” India is more likely to absorb roles rather than slash them overnight. And an insider even commented, "Some people will be laid off as a form of restructuring, they have been dealt a good handshake working within the advertising giant, and mostly the layoffs will focus on lower level of employees and recent hires.

Their point reflects a long-standing truth: Indian agency networks tend to avoid abrupt, mass exits unless absolutely unavoidable. But while this cultural cushion is real, it doesn’t fully shield the Indian market from the core problem the merger created which is duplication at every leadership level.

As one insider explained, “Six agencies had six CCOs, six CFOs, six HR heads. Now two remain as master networks. What do you realistically do with two CCOs in the same structure?” The answer, they admit, may not be fully visible until the first quarter of 2026.

Roles will rationalise - but the process has not even begun

Every insider stressed one clear fact missing from online discourse: nothing material has changed inside offices yet. All existing agency brands continue operating, campaigns continue under their old names, and no structural shake-up takes effect until January. That means no formal layoffs, no shifting of teams, no dissolving of units. Not yet.

One senior India communications team member emphasised this sharply, “Nothing people are speculating about has even begun. The real changes start only after January 1, but there is definitely a lot of chaos that is happening and, is going to settle very soon.”

This delay, however, is precisely what is fuelling the noise outside.

The Reddit & LinkedIn chatter: Panic in the absence of information

As official communication stays measured, anonymous communities are exploding. Advertising employees across Reddit, LinkedIn groups, Discord servers and Telegram clusters are posting claims of frozen payrolls, sudden account changes, and speculative lists of “who will be let go first.”

Many of these claims, insiders say, are exaggerated or outright false, but the volume of chatter reflects one undeniable truth: employees feel left in the dark, and turbulence, even if not yet real, is shaping perception.

One of your senior sources dismissed a popular Reddit claim that “Salary accounts of employees were frozen” as “absolute rubbish,” but acknowledged that anxiety is unavoidable: “Whenever you merge two global giants, the rumour mill will run faster than the actual restructuring.”

This online uproar, even if partly speculative, is becoming part of the merger’s narrative. And silence from global HQs, while strategic, has unintentionally magnified it.