Campaign Asia – Fresh off two major acquisitions in 2024, Jamie Posnanski unpacks why the traditional agency-supplier model needs an overhaul, combating transformation fatigue, and why so few clients believe their agency models are fit for purpose.
By now, the fragmentation of agency networks and the explosion of specialist marketing suppliers have been well-documented, leaving global brands drowning in a churn of endless transformation initiatives. Today, more than ever, marketing leadership teams are finding themselves juggling relationships with multiple agency partners while facing pressure to bring capabilities in-house, master first-party data, and demonstrate measurable growth—all with diminishing strategic support. MediaSense, known for forensic analysis of media performance and agency relationships, is pushing to fill this strategic void.
The company made two aggressive moves in 2024: Absorbing PwC’s UK media advisory practice in May and in November, acquired R3, a a global consultancy that advises marketers and their agencies on ways to enhance operational effectiveness and resource efficiency, and to optimise media strategies, and marketing investments.These deals, coupled with bringing in Jamie Posnanski as CEO in December 2024, hope to position the advisory to tackle what Posnanski describes as “transformation fatigue” plaguing global brands.
Posnanski’s appointment is telling. As the former global managing director at Accenture Song, he watched firsthand as clients struggled with the hollow promise of one-stop-shop solutions. Earlier, he built and sold digital agency Avventa [eventually sold to Accenture in 2012], giving him insight into both sides of the client-agency dynamic. This very experience shapes his conviction that the global holding company model is “fundamentally broken”—a view supported by MediaSense and The World Federation of Advertisers’ own data showing only 11% of clients believe their agency models are fit for purpose.
Campaign sat down with Posnanski during his recent visit to Singapore to dissect why marketing transformation initiatives keep failing, how the advisory landscape has evolved, and what it actually takes to orchestrate multiple agency relationships effectively in 2025.
