Five Reasons Why… Omnicom Is Backing adam&eve in the UK

As Omnicom’s landmark acquisition of Interpublic is sealed, the holding company has reshaped the structure of its UK creative operations — and three agencies are emerging as pivotal assets: McCann, adam&eve as the TBWA UK office, and AMV BBDO.

Here we take a look at why the newly enlarged holding company is doubling down on adam&eve, which is absorbing TBWA London.

Long admired for its category-defining creativity, unusually consistent leadership and commercially potent brand building, adam&eve, under the brilliantly thoughtful and focussed steer of CEO Miranda Hipwell, is now positioned to become one of the crown jewels of the enlarged Omnicom portfolio. TBWA’s UK operations - which had been led by the hugely respected Larissa Vince - are folding into the adam&eve structure, signalling just how central the agency is to Omnicom’s future in a newly consolidated global landscape.

Why? Because when a holding company spends billions reshaping its footprint, it doubles down on brands that are demonstrably effective, culturally resonant, and capable of anchoring client relationships across creative, digital, CX, and commerce. And adam&eve has proven, repeatedly, that it can be that kind of engine.

Here are the five reasons Omnicom is betting big.

• A Long Track Record of Category-Leading Creativity

  adam&eve’s reputation for breakthrough creativity is not just historical nostalgia; it remains one of the most reliably inventive agencies operating anywhere.

  From long-running platform ideas for Marmite, CALM and Volkswagen to Disney, adam&eve brings a level of craft and emotional intelligence that consistently translates into global recognition. For Omnicom - now integrating a host of formerly IPG clients and capabilities - an agency with a creative reputation that travels beyond the UK is strategically invaluable.

  Creative reputation becomes even more important in a merged holding company environment, where clients need confidence in who will lead the work. adam&eve continues to be a name that brand CMOs trust instinctively. That trust is currency - and Omnicom knows it.

• A Leadership Team Built for Stability and Scale

  In a post-merger world where integration can be messy, adam&eve brings something the new Omnicom will desperately need: a stable, proven leadership spine.

  CEO Miranda Hipwell, CSO Will Grundy and CCOs Ant Nelson and Mike Sutherland are the latest embodiments and custodians of adam&eve’s culture of calm confidence, building teams with low ego and high output, and delivering effective creative results.

  This matters enormously now. Omnicom will assess which agencies can act as dependable integration points, absorbing talent and clients without destabilising quality. The leadership of adam&eve gives Omnicom a safe pair of hands.

• Proven Ability to Drive Business Impact, Not Just Fame

  The agency has always resisted the trap of being known only for emotional storytelling. It has consistently been one of the industry’s clearest examples of creativity that sells, with enviable IPA Effectiveness results to prove it.

  As holding companies increasingly compete on measurable effectiveness - especially with a new influx of IPG performance and data assets - Omnicom needs agencies that can bridge creativity and outcomes. adam&eve already plays in that space fluently.

  For the enlarged group, this gives adam&eve a new role: acting as a creative “anchor brand” that can front integrated solutions with confidence, using the newly merged data, CX and commerce capabilities behind it. Omnicom doesn’t need to build credibility; adam&eve already has it.

• The Natural Home for TBWA’s UK Ambition

  TBWA in London has made such excellent strides under the strong and effective leadership of Larissa Vince and Andy Jex, but the UK has long been an under-leveraged market for TBWA relative to its global stature. Its creative reputation and client footprint have been less consistent over the last decade or so here than in the US, APAC or France, though there has been a real resurgence in recent years under Larissa Vince's leadership.

  In the context of the merger, bringing TBWA’s UK operations under the adam&eve banner solves several problems at once: it consolidates talent, removes brand fragmentation, and elevates TBWA’s creative ambitions in the market without the burden of needing a full reboot.

  The agency's culture - famously effective, high-craft - is precisely the sort of environment that can embrace and build upon TBWA clients and teams. For Omnicom, this consolidation creates another flagship UK creative brand with the scale, capability and momentum required to compete in a holding-company landscape that is about to get far more consolidated.

• A Rare Agency Culture That Attracts and Retains Top Talent

  This is perhaps the most important reason of all - Its culture remains one of the few enduring creative cultures in London: collaborative rather than macho, ambitious rather than chaotic, and deeply committed to craftsmanship. Clients see it, talent feels it, and the industry recognises it.

  Omnicom knows that in a merged world, culture is the differentiator that determines whether integration succeeds or collapses under its own weight. You can bolt together systems and P&Ls; you can’t fake a culture that inspires the best people to stay.

  By placing adam&eve at the heart of its UK offering, Omnicom is securing one of the strongest cultural assets in British advertising — one that can attract talent from both sides of the merger and rebuild confidence in a shifting landscape.

Conclusion

In a newly combined Omnicom-IPG world, only a handful of agencies will emerge with elevated importance and responsibilities. adam&eve has all the markers of one of them: creative reputation, leadership stability, commercial effectiveness, cultural strength, and the potential to act as the unifying force for Omnicom’s UK creative offering.

If Omnicom’s strategy is about creating fewer, stronger, more integrated agency brands, adam&eve is the obvious candidate to lead in the UK. And the holding company’s increasing emphasis on effectiveness-led creativity, backed by data and performance muscle inherited from IPG, aligns perfectly with what adam&eve already does best.

This is why Omnicom is backing adam&eve, and why the agency is poised to become even more central in the next era of the UK advertising landscape.