Rewriting the Playbook: Sergio Lopez On Future of Advertising Production

It’s been a year since Sergio Lopez took the helm as Global CEO of Omnicom Production, the newly formed content and production arm of Omnicom Group. Brought in by the group's global CEO John Wren, Lopez was tasked with a bold mission: to reshape the role of production in the advertising ecosystem. He came into the role with deep experience, having led Publicis Production globally and, before that, Craft Worldwide at McCann.

In just 12 months, Lopez has driven a dramatic transformation, unifying 70 production entities under one global umbrella, establishing a fresh operating model, and embedding a culture that blends creative excellence with strategic and technological innovation. The goal? Maintain the creative DNA while moving the role of production beyond executional efficiency and into the realm of strategic partner, using new ways of working - AI, data, and technology to deliver content that performs across platforms and markets.

Under Lopez’s leadership, Omnicom Production has redefined what a global production offering looks like. By bringing together talent and capabilities from across agencies like TBWA, AMV BBDO, and adam&eveDDB, the company is no longer treating production as a backend service, it’s positioning it as a strategic partner for brands from the outset of a campaign. Production teams are now embedded early in the planning process, working alongside creatives, media, and client teams to shape ideas, optimise content across channels, and deliver at scale without compromising on craft.

John Wren credits the success of the new model to the strong reception from clients, who are gaining access to a broader range of talent, specialised skills, and services. He points out that five of the top ten clients engaging with the production business have also adopted the network’s expanded service models, embracing modern content strategies and taking advantage of Omnicom’s investments in automation and AI. “Given this success,” Wren says, “we have expanded Omnicom Production to global markets, starting with the UK and Singapore.”

For Lopez, the UK holds particular promise. While it's a creative powerhouse, he believes innovation has often been held back by the scale of the market. But with a robust, tested model in the US and strategic technology partnerships - such as those with Adobe and Runway - Omnicom Production is now bringing a new kind of offer to the UK. One built specifically for the AI era.

“The UK is particularly exciting because it’s not only a key market but also the European headquarters for many global brands,” he says. “Unlike legacy models from a decade ago, we’re building this unit for the AI era. Instead of selling hours of work, we’re offering solutions - a completely different approach that no one else in the UK is currently taking.”

His ambition is clear: to make Omnicom Production the most advanced production entity in the UK and beyond. Backed by globally recognised creative agencies and tested delivery systems, Lopez believes the new model’s emphasis on strategic production, technology-driven efficiency, and measurable performance is what sets it apart.

We sat down with Lopez to understand what drives the man behind the mission: to protect Omnicom agencies’ creative integrity while building modern, scaled content solutions powered by data-led technology for a future increasingly influenced by AI and automation.

Lopez’s journey into the world of advertising began at the age of 16, when he stumbled into the industry almost by accident. Growing up in a neighbourhood that didn’t traditionally embrace visual creativity, he found his passion in diverse mediums: photography, radio, computer programming, and music production long before the world of advertising called to him. His breakthrough came when his parents bought a video camera, sparking his interest in video art and music videos.

“Ever since I can remember, I loved visual creativity and one thing led to another,” he recalls. “I did photography, radio, and computer programming. I started to combine all of the above, dipped my toes into music production, graphic design, music videos… and around that time, for some reason, video art became a thing, television programs like Metropolis, or exhibitions by people like Brian Eno and Bill Viola. I felt seen and inspired and could not wait to get started.”

After a brief stint in television at the age of 16, a position at an agency in Spain marked the beginning of his journey in the creative sector. The agency was one of the most creative in the country during a period when Spain was recognised as a world-class creative market. It was there that Lopez developed his philosophy of creativity, one that embraces new technologies and ideas, constantly pushing boundaries while staying grounded in the core values of innovation and relevance.

That philosophy now underpins everything he’s building at Omnicom Production. The focus is not just on execution, but on helping brands create better, smarter, faster content—using data to inform decisions, AI to streamline processes, and creativity to maintain emotional impact. In a world where content demands are multiplying, Lopez sees an opportunity to give marketers the tools and teams they need to thrive.

As Omnicom Production enters its second year under his leadership, the groundwork has been laid. The infrastructure is in place, the model is proven, and the appetite from clients is growing. Now, it’s about scale, taking the model into new markets, adapting it locally, and continuing to evolve it for a world where technology and creativity are more intertwined than ever.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Creative Salon: Omnicom Production has set out with the ambitious aim of redefining creativity. That’s a bold promise. How do you plan to bring something new to the advertising industry?

Sergio Lopez: That’s exactly what we’ve been discussing since I first started. What we’re seeing right now is that marketers face a number of challenges, and one of the biggest is brand consistency. With segmentation across so many channels and different teams handling a brand, its voice can end up looking completely different depending on the platform. This inconsistency hurts brands.

Right now, the industry seems to be splitting into two camps: those focused on brand awareness and creativity, and those driven by performance, digital, and templated content. We believe there’s a need to bring these together, to create a unified brand voice across all channels while still being innovative in an automated, data-driven world. That’s why we’ve brought together top creative minds from agencies like TBWA, BBDO, AMV BBDO, and adam&eveDDB. We’re merging creative strategy with production expertise and leveraging technology to work smarter. This allows us to build a team of thinkers and makers who can drive this transformation.

CS: How is this structured within Omnicom? Are these experts still part of their original agencies, or are they now fully integrated into Omnicom Production?

Sergio Lopez: It’s similar to the evolution media went through two decades ago. Just as media needed to work closely with creative and other disciplines, production now needs to collaborate not only with creative teams but also with PR, commerce, performance, and especially media agencies.

The biggest opportunity we have is aligning creative production with media needs. This means not only delivering hero content - the big creative ideas - but also all the supporting content that needs to be platform-ready, personalised for audiences, and aligned with culture. This approach moves beyond the traditional focus on efficiency and offshoring. Instead, it’s about strategic consultancy - bringing in connected data to understand what works, what doesn’t, and what clients should prioritise. No brand has successfully achieved this using traditional methods.

That’s why we’re creating a new model, similar to how media evolved, with capabilities under one roof - including craft, data insights, publication, creativity, and operations.

CS: What impact has Omnicom Production had on the agency network since launch?

Sergio Lopez: It’s still early days, but we’re already seeing significant shifts. First, the conversations with clients have changed. Instead of tactical, executional discussions, we’re now talking about bigger challenges, like reducing customer acquisition costs and latency.

Content is at the heart of everything. Without it, creativity remains a theory, and media has nothing to distribute. Fixing content unlocks real personalisation and the ability to produce more relevant, culturally impactful work.

We’ve introduced a framework that ensures content is created consistently across campaigns. The result? Not only has quality remained high, but in some areas, like social media and e-commerce, it has improved to match the standards of traditional TV production.

There’s also an efficiency play here. By consolidating resources, clients can do more with their budgets. Ideas that used to be discarded due to budget constraints are now being executed because we’ve reduced overhead and overlap. Clients aren’t necessarily looking to cut overall spend, they just want to reallocate it toward future-proof solutions.

CS: Given your knowledge of the UK market, what’s your perspective on its production landscape, and how will Omnicom Production introduce something new?

Sergio Lopez: The UK is a fascinating market—highly creative and large enough to enable innovation. However, it’s often not big enough on its own to justify large-scale investments in disruptive technologies, particularly AI.

That’s where we come in. We’ve developed and tested many of these technologies in the U.S., where the market is larger. Through partnerships with Adobe, Runway, and other AI pioneers, we’re bringing those innovations to the UK. This is more than just scale - it’s about introducing a new model that’s built for today’s AI-driven world. We’re combining a strong creative DNA with advanced technology, delivering solutions that very few, if any, can match in this market.

CS: Can you talk a bit about the impact that integrating these AI partnerships is having on production? What are you achieving as a result of that?

Sergio Lopez: We're seeing an impact across multiple areas. Some of these changes are less flashy but make a big difference, particularly in helping us make smarter decisions. One of the key benefits is predictive insights. AI doesn’t make decisions for us, but it helps us make better decisions, especially in a world where cultural cycles now last weeks instead of months. In industries like automotive, beauty, and fashion, understanding what’s trending now versus what was trending a month ago is crucial. AI enables us to anticipate what content we should be creating, what the look and feel should be, and how it’s likely to perform before we even begin production. This predictive capability sets the foundation for better outcomes.

It’s almost like having an "uber art buyer" helping us understand what’s coming next in a given category. From a production standpoint, this allows us to maximise existing assets. We can up-skill or modify content instead of reshooting, which saves significant costs. AI also helps with content adaptation across different channels. Often, brands reshoot the same material multiple times simply because teams aren’t communicating. AI enables us to repurpose content originally created for TV for use in banners, websites, or other platforms, eliminating redundant efforts.

Finally, AI helps us with real-time optimisation. With the shift from linear television to connected TV and pre-roll ads, we now have insights into how audiences engage with content. Are they watching the full commercial? Are they dropping off? If so, can we pivot and adjust the content quickly? Ultimately, AI allows us to create content that people actually want to engage with. By layering creativity with data-driven insights - what I’d call creative engineering - we move beyond simple cost-efficiency. Instead, AI becomes a value driver, elevating production to a whole new level.

CS: You seem to be moving at great speed, having already achieved so much in the last 12 months. What is your ambition for Omnicom Production by the end of 2025?

Sergio Lopez: We have three ambitions, all of which are deeply connected to our culture and vision. Our vision is about craft that works - bridging creativity with results. From a client perspective, our goal is to continue modernising our clients’ businesses, helping them evolve the way they approach advertising. However, internally, where people are especially curious about what we’re doing, I want to focus on three key things:

• Building a community of creators and change agents.
We are shaping Omnicom Production into a network that delivers excellence at scale. We want to move beyond just a handful of brands and expand globally, ensuring we can help more clients while maintaining high standards.


• Fostering a culture of curiosity and embracing change.
Right now, many people in the industry feel fearful because of how fast things are evolving. But we want our teams to feel excited rather than afraid. Just last week, we launched a career development framework, which we had to pull together quickly, but it’s a signal to everyone:

There will be training.

There will be support.

• There will be career progression.
This industry is built on people, technology, and ways of working, but people remain the most important part of our business.

Strengthening collaboration and togetherness.
One word you’ll hear repeatedly in our organisation is togetherness. We want to bring people along with us, encouraging collaboration across our teams worldwide, between agencies, and with clients.


Ultimately, my ambition by the end of 2025 is to drive excellence, change-making, and togetherness- embedding these values into everything we do.

The World According to Sergio Lopez

My favourite directors

I am specially tough on directors because lately I feel that we suffer from a sea of sameness and there are only a few of them that truly are defining culture and modern craft. Amongst them are Megaforce, I have been a big fan of their work for a long time. Their work bridges cinematic craft with influences from around the world and TikTok storytelling. There are followed by a promising new wave of directors like Ezra Hurwitz, Giordano Maestrelli or Nina Holgrem.

Ivan Zacharias, Juan Cabral, Melina Matsoukas, Kim Gehrig, Canada, Martin de Thurah,… are excellent, solid sources of exceptional filmmaking and masters in their craft.

I am finding exciting creativity is coming from other areas like design (Pablo Delcan, Max Guther, Jack Smith, Saratta Chuengsatiansup or, my all time favorite, Alberto Jaen), typography, which now is in motion (Studio Massive Assembly, Kiel Kutschelknaus, Vucko or Adreion de Castro)

I would also recommend Team Lab’s experiential work as a constant inspiration.

My favourite ads

I've shared my favourite ads many times and it always gets me into trouble because I have a very specific taste and I tend to obsess on the details. Also it would be a waste of words to say that I like 'Guinness Surfer' (which I do. Everybody does. Everybody should). But here we go.

Before my time (before I was even born) I like the work Shiseido or VW used to do for different reasons. Shiseido was a visual lesson in craft, and VW in creativity.

From the early days of my career I love the Levi’s work that BBH did. Masterclasses in creativity and film craft. Great ideas, cinematic executions and unexpected choices of music.

My current guilty pleasure is the work for Hornbach. It’s funny, weird and well crafted. I very much like last year’s campaign “The Square Meter”. It has elements of some of my favourite directors like Jacques Tati, Wes Anderson or jean-Pierre Jeunet.

And what excites you about the future?

That we get to define it at a moment of change. I am excited about the future of creativity with new ways of expression. I am excited about advertising that people feel relevant to them. I am excited about the new generation of creators (post-influencers).

People like talking about how much they like disruption, change, innovation, thinking outside the box,… well, this is what it looks like, and it is painfully exciting. Lobsters either outgrow their shells and get a new one or die. Check out Philip Colbert. Be more lobster.