Now, a big reorganization at Dentsu is putting Merkle at the center of the orbit and swallowing other data-focused agencies while creative agencies, once the bread and butter of ad agencies, take a step back.
Likewise at WPP, the famed JWT, long synonymous with iconic ad campaigns, is all but erased, 30 or so years after WPP bought the agency as a springboard to what would become the world's largest advertising company.
These developments show how the value of big-budget TV ads has dwindled as advertising has become more performance-dominated - and the tech giants have started calling the ad budget shots.
Years ago, media companies had what seemed like the brilliant idea to expand into agency services to offset a decline in print advertising.
But there was always the perception that agencies weren't neutral and were steering clients to buy ad space in their parent company's titles.
That was an issue that dogged Hearst in its $325 million acquisition of iCrossing back in 2010 - and is presumably addressed now that the publisher is folding iCrossing into its magazine operation, Patrick Coffee scoops.
You can't go to a website without being hit with a pop-up asking you to consent to ad targeting, thanks to new privacy regs. But companies now risk big fines if they don't follow the letter of the law in how they ask for that info.
That's given rise to companies like Sourcepoint, which just raised $17 million for a total of nearly $50 million to help marketers and publishers stay on the right side of the law.
The key is for companies to be upfront and transparent in these pop-ups, Alessandro De Zanche, founder of media consultancy ADZ Strategies tells Lara O'Reilly.
"We are always telling people why we need their data but not what's in it for them. It has to be more evident, more explicit, and that's also an opportunity to have a deeper dialogue that can benefit many other areas," such as publishers' subscription or login strategies, he said.
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