In an industry fascinated with scale, acquisitions, and consolidation, it’s time to ask a difficult question: does being bigger mean being better? Or are we confusing volume with value, reach with relevance, and power with performance?
Across the global advertising landscape, holding companies continue to expand. Acquisitions accelerate, mergers form vast conglomerates, and structures are reshaped to chase efficiency.
On the surface, it looks ambitious. But take a closer look, and a different story emerges.
The larger the organisation, the greater the risk of losing touch with clients, culture, and the people they aim to serve.
Big isn’t broken, but it is bruised
We’ve seen bold moves across the industry. Omnicom’s proposed merger with Interpublic, Publicis’ steady growth and digital investment, WPP’s restructuring of GroupM; each reflects deliberate strategy in a complex market. These are smart companies led by smart people. But even the most well-intentioned expansion brings pressure.
Staff reductions, structural shifts, and evolving client needs show how difficult it is to grow at pace while remaining responsive and relevant. Another trend is equally telling: the acquisition of smaller, specialist businesses that often remain underused.
A tech firm is acquired to show innovation intent but lacks a pathway into the core offer. A boutique agency is folded into a global network, but its voice becomes muted.
These acquisitions may enhance scale on paper, but if they aren’t meaningfully integrated, their value diminishes. This is not a failure of ambition; it’s a disconnect between what has been acquired and what has been activated.
Showmanship builds brand preference, while salesmanship chases the short-term. Some agencies acquire and appear progressive, but real value only emerges when those capabilities are lived, not just listed.
The bridge between scale and relevance
This is where business transformation (BX) becomes essential. Scale without transformation is simply expansion; BX ensures that growth is always embedded with purpose, powered by data, and responsive to human needs. At dentsu BX, we view transformation not as a one-time pivot, but as an ongoing reinvention of operating models, leadership, culture, and value delivery.
True transformation requires an integrated approach—one that reimagines business operations and culture from the inside out. BX brings alignment to scale by ensuring that new acquisitions and technologies are not just added to the portfolio, but embedded into a framework that supports sustainable, meaningful growth.
Africa has a different story to tell
In Africa, depth often matters more than breadth. Success comes from being truly immersed in local culture, language, and human behaviour. You cannot outsource impact here. Brands that thrive do so by listening carefully, responding with relevance, and adapting at speed.
BX thinking is particularly powerful in Africa. It allows organisations to evolve in step with rapidly changing consumer dynamics, local economic pressures, and digital acceleration. Transformation here is not about importing global systems; it’s about co-creating new ones, rooted in local insight and delivered with global discipline.
That is why smaller networks and agile agencies often lead. We do not focus solely on the largest budgets, nor do we define value by volume. We build partnerships, not pipelines. We serve people, not processes. Here, an agency’s strength lies not in its buying power, but in the depth of its relationships and the resonance of its ideas.
Africa is one of the youngest, most connected, and most entrepreneurial regions in the world. A templated, one-size-fits-all approach does not work. What is needed is cultural intelligence, creative intuition, and commercial agility.
As Nurock has often noted, effective communication is built on trust—trust that only forms when agencies truly understand their clients and communities.
Scaling with intention
At dentsu, our growth has not come from collecting disconnected parts, but through building systems and capabilities that work together, serve real markets, and make a measurable difference. This is not scale for its own sake; it is scale rooted in purpose, driven by values.
These initiatives are not isolated CSR projects or innovation showcases; they are pillars of a broader transformation agenda. They reflect our belief that real change happens when business strategy, community impact, and capability development move together. This is the essence of BX.
Our Merkury platform is a clear example, developed globally, then re-engineered in partnership with Telkom to meet the needs of real South African consumers. It gives brands access to over 20 million precisely profiled audiences, linking data with outcomes in ways that are both powerful and relevant.
Our appointment as a Google Marketing Platform Sales Partner across Sub-Saharan Africa reflects our investment in technical capability and market insight, not just geographic presence. We are building depth, not just reach.
This same commitment to meaningful growth is behind the Dentsu School of Influence, a world-first initiative launched in Cape Town to support and safeguard young African creators navigating the fast-growing creator economy. In an environment with few standards and little protection, we chose to lead with a bold, ethical model that centres people, culture, and long-term opportunity.
Structured as an eight-month accelerator, the school combines hands-on campaign experience with training in content creation, storytelling, legal and financial literacy, and mental health. But it is more than just a skills programme. It is a platform for confidence, careers, and community. In 2024, the school graduated its first full cohort in South Africa, with several participants securing roles within our business and our partner network. Last month, we expanded into Kenya, Nigeria, and Spain, with localised versions now underway.
Rooted in our Sanpo Yoshi philosophy—good for people, business, and society—our Dentsu School of Influence proves that influence, when grounded in integrity and inclusivity, can become a force for cultural equity, commercial value, and generational change.
In Zambia, that same belief in home-grown talent led us to launch the Talent Incubator in partnership with the University of Lusaka, bridging the gap between academic learning and real-world industry needs.
This is how we scale: by investing in people, platforms, and ideas that deliver genuine progress. By expanding capability from within, not importing it from elsewhere. By choosing systems that fit the markets we serve, not the other way around.
Media owners and the price of partnership
As global buying power consolidates, media owners are under increasing pressure. Many media owners are asked to hold pricing or offer steep discounts to remain in favour with large networks. This may generate short-term volume, but it puts long-term sustainability at risk.
In emerging markets especially, local media partners are vital cultural connectors. When media buying is executed through a global lens, the richness of local content and context is lost. The price of that is relevance, and in Africa, relevance is vital.
Global teams, local blind spots
The rise of global “buying teams” has brought efficiencies in how agencies manage platform relationships. But centralisation brings its own risks. A campaign in Nairobi is not the same as one in New York. A mother shopping in Lagos does not behave like one in London.
When campaign planning and optimisation are standardised across markets, local nuance is often reduced to an afterthought. Trust is earned through understanding, and loyalty is built on relevance. Without embedded local expertise, whole audiences can be missed.
Retail media: The quiet shift
While many pursue media dominance, another transformation is quietly taking hold: retail media. From Walmart in the US to Takealot in South Africa, retailers are building ecosystems powered by first-party data. These platforms allow brands to engage in moments that are measurable, attributable, and directly connected to purchase.
For FMCG brands, this is game-changing. Media is no longer a distant driver; it is a point-of-sale lever. Retailers already know what is in the basket, and soon they will understand what is in the mind. That level of insight challenges traditional media approaches and demands a rethink of what effective marketing looks like.
What now?
Let me be clear: scale is not the enemy. Done well, it brings access to tools, technology, and talent that can accelerate performance. But scale without purpose becomes noise. Clients are not asking for more; they are asking for better. Better thinking, better service, better outcomes.
Business transformation is not a trend; it’s the ticket to resilience. For agencies and brands alike, the challenge ahead is not to get bigger, but to get better through reinvention. That means embedding transformation across every layer of the business—from how we think, how we work, and how we serve.
The future belongs to those who can blend global intelligence with local empathy, who can build with consistency but never at the expense of connection.
At dentsu Africa, we have chosen to grow by building capability, not just acquiring it. By deepening relationships, not just expanding reach. That is not small thinking. It is what gives us the strongest position of all.
Dawn Rowlands is CEO of dentsu Africa. She has been responsible for the growth of the African network, expanding the footprint in South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania taking dentsu Africa from 5 owned markets to 11. Dentsu Africa now has offices in Mozambique, Zambia, Uganda, Senegal, Cameroon and Ivory Coast. She has been strategic in expanding dentsu’s vision.
