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Omnicom–IPG merger sparks leadership unease | Budget 2026 puts AI at the centre, execution risks remain
Storyboard18 brings you top five news updates from the world of advertising, marketing, and business of brands.
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We bring you top five news updates from the world of advertising, marketing, and business of brands.
Global merger, local turmoil: Omnicom–IPG merger triggers leadership unease
The global consolidation of Omnicom Group and Interpublic Group (IPG) is beginning to cast a long shadow over their India operations, with multiple industry sources pointing to growing leadership dissatisfaction, client unease, and organisational instability at Omnicom Advertising India.
According to several senior executives familiar with the matter, the integration has failed to deliver clarity or momentum in the Indian market, instead triggering internal friction at the highest levels. Even top leadership, including Dheeraj Sinha — CEO of McCann Worldgroup India — is understood to be unhappy with how the post-merger structure is evolving. Sinha previously led the IPG-owned FCB which was folded into McCann. Meanwhile, Prasoon Joshi who led McCann in India and APAC was named chairman of Omnicom Advertising India.
Budget 2026: India puts AI at the core of growth, but execution risks loom
On February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2026, placing artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure at the core of India’s next growth phase. Framed around three kartavya, the Budget positioned AI not as a standalone sector but as a system-wide productivity layer spanning governance, agriculture, education, employment, and services-led growth.
From incentives for large-scale data centre investments and cloud infrastructure to AI-led platforms like Bharat-VISTAAR in agriculture and a renewed push to embed AI into skilling and employment pathways, the Budget signalled a shift from experimentation to institutionalisation. However, even as policy intent sharpened around compute, talent, and adoption, industry experts flagged execution risks, underpowered funding for IndiaAI, and the absence of a long-term roadmap for frontier AI capabilities.
Budget 2026: AVGC gets a budget push, but the real battle is IP, platforms and patient capital
Viraj Sheth, co-founder and CEO of Monk Entertainment, sees India’s global reputation in AVGC as both an asset and a ceiling. “Currently, we are still known globally for being dependable execution partners. Indian VFX and animation teams work on projects for studios like Marvel Studios and Netflix, but the ownership of characters, formats, and long term rights usually sits outside India. That keeps us in the value chain, but not at the top of it.”
ChatGPT ads enter limited beta with $200,000 minimum spend
OpenAI has started testing advertising on ChatGPT, asking a select group of advertisers to commit at least $200,000 to participate in an early-stage beta, the company confirmed to ADWEEK.
The advertising trial is intentionally limited in scope, reflecting OpenAI’s cautious approach to introducing commercial messaging within its flagship AI product. According to an OpenAI spokesperson, the small-scale rollout is designed to help the company evaluate which types of ads are genuinely useful or relevant to users, rather than disruptive.
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