Omnicom is planning to slash its headcount by another 15,000 employees by the end of 2026, through a combination of redundancies, outsourcing, sell-offs and “natural attrition” as it looks to reduce its workforce from 120,000 to 105,000.
The move is being driven by two major corporate shifts. Firstly, the group is eliminating duplicated corporate and regional roles to achieve a $1.5bn gross cost synergy target following the $13.25bn acquisition of Interpublic Group.
Secondly, PepsiCo has just moved its global media account to Publicis, after more than 25 years, resulting in a loss of an estimated $100m in agency fees for Omnicom. This has accelerated restructuring efforts, particularly within affected creative and account teams.
At the end of 2024, before the merger was finalised, Omnicom and IPG had a combined workforce of 128,200 employees. By December 2025, just after the transaction closed, Omnicom reported a combined global workforce of approximately 120,000 employees.
This initial reduction of about 8,200 roles included standalone IPG job cuts throughout 2025 and an immediate 4,000 redundancies announced by Omnicom CEO John Wren during a post-merger agency restructuring.
Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference, Omnicom chief financial officer Phil Angelastro insisted the latest round of cuts will encompass broader operational changes rather than direct redundancies alone.
He said the reduction will include employees affected by merger synergies, particularly through the removal of duplicate corporate costs and regional management roles, as well as outsourcing and offshoring, and employees leaving the group as Omnicom disposes of businesses it no longer considers core.
Angelastro claimed the restructuring will have “very little impact on client-facing people”, except where employees move as agencies gain or lose accounts.
But despite the heavy workforce reduction and the high-profile loss of the Pepsi account, Omnicom has raised its full-year organic revenue growth guidance to 5% and has insisted that the restructuring will not materially impact its 2027 financial outlook.
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