Let's Review, Shall We?

The seismic shifts continue to roll as advertising today is less Mad Men and more MythBusters: lots of smart people testing assumptions that used to feel like laws of physics. Nothing is “broken,” exactly—but several things are being politely disproven in real time.

Holding companies deserve credit for building industrial-scale creativity. They mastered reach, specialization, and global coordination—no small feat. But the industry they perfected has quietly shape-shifted. 

Marketing now moves at the speed of CGM, platforms update weekly, and ideas are expected to ship, learn, and evolve before the ink dries on the deck. 

Systems designed to manage scale can struggle when speed, synthesis, and decisiveness become the real currency.

Meanwhile, a new class of large independents is thriving—not by rejecting complexity, but by editing it. Fewer layers, clearer ownership, tighter incentives. They behave less like federations and more like focused companies. Their growth isn’t a rebellion; it’s a response. 

The market is rewarding agencies that can think broadly and act immediately.

For brand marketers, this is why agency reviews are no longer the corporate equivalent of flossing—good for you but easy to postpone. They’re more like updating your operating system. You don’t do it because the old one crashed; you do it because it can’t run the new apps.

A review forces invaluable questions: Are we buying thinking or traffic control? Speed or safety? Capability or comfort? It reveals whether your agency is built for today’s problems or yesterday’s triumphs.

The irony is that loyalty has never mattered more—and blind loyalty has never mattered less. In an industry defined by reinvention, reassessing your partners isn’t disloyal. It’s just good brand hygiene. And like flossing, it actually shows results.