Growth Business Development Associate

As agencies push agentic media future, execs work to ward off client rogue fears. Keep up to date with Digiday's annual coverage of Advertising Week in New York. More from the series With no shortage of news on media agencies moving forward with agentic initiatives - and Advertising Week has featured several discussions around it - it's worth asking how they're dealing with client concerns over the possibility of rogue activity. Dentsu announced that its Carat media agency is partnering with NBC Universal, Freewheel and AI firm Newton to launch a planning, buying and optimization agent to use in upfront investments. Although none of the parties would name it, one luxury retail client is apparently already using the solution. Independent agency Tinuiti launched a "Bliss Point Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server", opening its proprietary measurement layer directly to AI agents, enabling it to place audience, creative, media, and measurement under one server. And Stagwell relaunched its Assembly media agency, now named Stagwell Media, whose centerpiece is an agentic system called Machine OS that's designed to speed up the agency's ability to react to changing market dynamics. And that's all just this week. But not every client is always onboard with moving so fast. The press is chock full of news of rogue agents, hacks (see: OpenAI's execs being hauled over the coals in Australia) and a latent lack of understanding of exactly how AI works. So what's an agency to do to convince clients it's safe to dip into agentic waters? The answer, almost always, is human hand-holding. "Every task and everything we do sits on a sliding scale of low to high human oversight," said Rebekah Shalit, head of platforms at Dentsu. "Everything still requires human oversight, things that are repeatable tasks, billing, campaign reporting. [And] then there's things like content consumption and strategic planning and long-term innovation planning that really require human craft, and I think that's really important to keep in mind." "We're not going to live in a world where robots are doing our job," she concluded. "When we're building agentic solutions there's this very strong need to have a human in the loop because they're new, and we don't trust them, and they make mistakes," explained David Dworin, chief product officer at Freewheel at an Advertising Week session. "Most agentic systems are either designed with a human that has to approve everything, or very specific controls that can keep it from getting into trouble. We're sort of working up the comfort and maturity curve right now." At WPP Media, Lauren Wetzel, who oversees the British holdco's agentic development as global president of data and tech solutions, said since she's steeped in governance and privacy issues from her background as an ad-tech exec, the caution is built into the holdco's systems. "Our whole approach is that governance and human accountability are central to agentic media buying," said Wetzel. "You can have agents that can analyze; or they can evaluate the ad inventory. It's important that they do that across multiple media owners because that's a feature, not a bug. They want to be able to source the best inventory. They want to be able to do that fast at scale." "But it also doesn't mean that every decision should just be delegated to an agent," she continued. "And so, particularly where there's a financial or activation impact... We require explicit controls, approval thresholds, accountable human oversight. There's also a clear separation between what is probabilistic AI recommendations versus what is a deterministic execution." Stagwell's Slavi Samardzija, who oversees that challenger holdco's media as global chair of media and commerce, believes the secret to keeping clients' concerns at bay is to explain the role of the orchestrator in AI-driven activity. "It comes down to having teams whose shape has changed," he told Digiday recently. "Where you have a disproportionately larger number of senior people who are guiding these agents, and those people need to be experts in multiple areas of media and commerce workflow." Finally, Carrie Drinkwater, Carat's chief investment officer, took a slightly more bullish position. "We look at it as an opportunity," said Drinkwater. "The beauty of agentic for me personally and professionally is the compound learning. For us to say to [clients], in a year we're going to know so much about your business, your media - feeding [information] beyond just media... If we don't start now, we'll be behind," she said. "The faster you get onboard, the smarter you'll be. And it all needs to be interoperable." Media buying's next jargon is 'the moment' Timing is, as they say, everything. At Advertising Week, execs from ExxonMobil, Dollar General, Chase, TripAdvisor - all of which operate commerce media networks - have been intoning about the importance of punctuality as they make a subtle pitch to buyers and clients in the audience. Commerce media, went their argument, could provide brands the ability to hit consumers at "physical moments" (the gas pump, per Thomas Chiang, head of retail media and innovation strategy at Exxon) and "difficult to activate" moments (the store till), according to Dollar General's Media Network vp and general manager Austin Leonard. Marketers need to discard outdated dogmas to seize said moments, argued Selen Ozkan, vp of growth, commerce, UK & EMEA at WPP Media. "Take a 35-year-old in New York. That person isn't the same shopper on a Tuesday at 8 a.m. versus Friday at 9 p.m... their needs change," she said. Ozkan suggested brands could solve that conundrum by going beyond the calendar of sporting and cultural events and instead focusing on "micro-moments": perusing a takeout menu, for example. For Pepsi's Nordics business, it meant running a video campaign in conjunction with a battery of high-impact display ads with Danish takeaway app Wolt, with the aim of increasing Pepsi sales among customers ordering in. It's a strategy Pepsi is now rolling out in other markets, according to Jacob Thorhauge, strategy, planning and investments manager for PepsiCo in the Nordic region. Companies in the programmatic world have been banging this drum for a while already. Seedtag, for example, frames its contextual solutions as a means for brands to meet consumers at the right moment. "Understanding the motivations behind people unlocks clues about how better to connect with them in their emotional state, and when they're ready to make a purchase," said Brian Danzis, Seedtag's chief revenue officer, on a Tuesday panel. And sports-focused ad tech firms Sportradar and Genius Sports like to talk up the importance and the opportunity of advertising to audiences at a moment when they're most likely to be engaged. For them, the right moment is probably at half-time. Genius even has a programmatic solution dubbed the "Moment Engine." Jargon aside, moments - micro or otherwise - are the next intellectual case for spending dollars marked for upper-funnel channels with retail and commerce media networks. "Loyalty is fluid," warned Brad Backenstose, president of clients for WPP Media, and brands that want to preserve the connection they have with customers should consider spending more consistently in broad and medium-reach channels. Within this framework, the "moment" is something only retail media networks can provide. Expect to hear more about it from retail media execs in the near future. - Sam Bradley What Digiday has heard. "I think that segmentation in its natural stage, from an audience perspective, has kind of gone by the wayside. It's really about how do we curate the right audience, bringing in first-party data from brands and publishers, and marry that with third-party data. This is one of my passion points: Third-party data gets a bad rap sometimes, but it's someone's first-party data filtered through something else. So it is valuable to be able to build out, especially when you have deterministic identity - that you can actually build more robust insights and understanding of audiences." -Julie Clark, svp of media and entertainment, TransUnion, who attended Advertising Week On stage. The Masked CMO with Nick Cannon, 9 a.m., Great Minds Stage Cannon appears in conversation with Dhar Mann, who spent this week as AWNY's first chief creator officer, encouraging fewer middlemen in brokering contracts with creators. Kerry Washington & The Simpson Street Playbook: Storytelling That Drives Business and Culture, 4:10 p.m., Great Minds Stage Washington appears in conversation to discuss how quality storytelling can lead to higher engagement.

New Attain research reveals Gen Z Spends 25% less, shops more widely and has lower brand loyalty. Co-authored study with dentsu analyzing one year of observed purchase behavior finds Gen Z spreads a smaller wallet across more merchants, directs two-thirds of everyday spending to discretionary categories and challenges traditional views of brand loyalty. October 07, 2026 10:00 ET | Source: Attain NEW YORK, Oct. 07, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - Attain, the most trusted and comprehensive source for live purchase data, today released a new research report co-authored with dentsu, Inside the Gen Z Wallet: How Gen Z Spends, Where They Shop, and What They Care About. Drawing on Attain's proprietary consumer data, the study examines a year of Gen Z spending behavior, revealing a generation whose purchasing patterns challenge conventional assumptions about consumer loyalty, retail engagement and the path to purchase. The data depicts a shopper whose wallet is smaller than the average U.S. shopper's, but distributed across a broader set of merchants and disproportionately weighted toward discretionary spending. According to the findings, Gen Z shoppers spend approximately 25% less annually than the average U.S. shopper, yet spread their purchases across 6% more merchants. Their smaller wallets are disproportionately directed toward discretionary categories, including restaurants, entertainment, fitness and mobility. And while Gen Z is more likely than the average shopper to say it values brand names, that affinity doesn't necessarily translate into loyalty: Gen Z is 18% less likely to say it usually buys from the same brands. For brands and marketers, the findings highlight the challenge of understanding and reaching a generation whose spending is increasingly distributed across retailers, categories and purchasing occasions. A smaller wallet, spread across more merchants Analyzing purchase behavior from September 1, 2025, through August 31, 2026, the report identifies five key findings: * A smaller wallet, spread wider. Gen Z spends approximately 25% less annually than the average U.S. shopper, yet shops across 6% more merchants. * Discretionary spending dominates. Gen Z directs 66% of its everyday wallet to discretionary categories, compared with 58% for the average U.S. shopper. * Experiences capture outsized spend. Public transit, rideshare, gaming, fitness and restaurants all command a disproportionately large share of Gen Z's wallet. * Brand-conscious, but not brand-loyal. Gen Z is 25% more likely to value brand names over price, but 18% less likely to stick with the same brands. * Convenience wins. Gen Z is 19% more likely to prioritize saving time and 12% less likely to prioritize everyday low prices. What Gen Z's changing wallet means for brands Gen Z's shopping behavior reveals the limitations of relying on individual retailers, platforms or categories to understand consumer demand. As this generation spreads its spending across more merchants and shows greater openness to switching brands, marketers need a more complete picture of purchasing behavior to identify growth opportunities and measure performance. "Gen Z is showing us why the traditional view of the consumer is no longer enough. They shop across more merchants, prioritize different spending occasions and are willing to switch brands," said Jeff Zifrony, SVP of Strategy at Attain. "When you can see what people actually buy across retailers and categories, you can begin to understand the full picture of consumer demand, not just the portion visible within any single platform. That's a critical advantage for brands looking to turn consumer understanding into growth." The report also highlights the importance of connecting brand investment to actual purchase behavior. With Gen Z expressing greater interest in brand names but lower repeat-brand preference, traditional measures of media efficiency may not tell the full story. New-to-brand acquisition, repeat purchase and cross-retailer sales outcomes offer additional ways to understand whether marketing investment is translating into customer growth. "Gen Z's fragmented spending behavior requires brands to connect audience understanding, media planning and buying, commerce and measurement rather than treating them as separate disciplines," said Aisha Khan, Head of Retail and Commerce, dentsu North America. "The research provides an evidence-based foundation for rethinking how brands compete for consumer spending across the full commerce ecosystem." Research Methodology Inside the Gen Z Wallet is a co-authored research report from Attain and dentsu, analyzing consumer purchase behavior from September 1, 2025, through August 31, 2026. Spending behaviors are measured using Attain's consumer purchase data. All indexes compare Gen Z with the average U.S. shopper, with an index of 100 representing parity. The report examines shopping frequency, merchant breadth, transaction value, category reach, wallet share and consumer attitudes. Download the full report: here. About Attain Attain is the most trusted and comprehensive source for live purchase data. Through the consumer applications Attain builds and manages, Attain maintains direct relationships with millions of individuals, capturing real-time, deterministic commerce behavior. Attain extends that data across the advertising ecosystem, helping brands, agencies, retailers and media platforms connect media investment to verified sales outcomes. About Dentsu Dentsu is an integrated growth and transformation partner to the world's leading organizations. Founded in 1901 in Tokyo, Japan, and now present in approximately 120 countries and regions, it has a proven track record of nurturing and developing innovations, combining the talents of its global network of leadership brands to develop impactful and integrated growth solutions for clients. Dentsu delivers end-to-end experience transformation (EX) by integrating its services across Media, CXM and Creative, while its business transformation (BX) mindset pushes the boundaries of transformation and sustainable growth for brands, people and society. Dentsu, Innovating to Impact. Media Contact: Aimee Miller Broadsheet Communications for Attain [email protected]

Dentsu Africa and Blitz formalise partnership after years of collaboration. Dentsu Africa has strengthened its presence in Southern Africa through the signing of an affiliate partnership agreement between dentsu Zambia and Blitz Interactive Agency Limited, one of Malawi's leading independent marketing and communications agencies. The agreement establishes an official dentsu affiliate presence in Malawi, expanding the network's reach across the region and enhancing its ability to support clients operating across Southern Africa with integrated media, creative, data, and marketing solutions. While the agreement formalises dentsu's presence in Malawi, the relationship behind it has been years in the making. Dentsu Zambia has supported cross-border clients operating in Malawi since 2020 and has long recognised the market's strategic importance. As opportunities grew, so too did the search for the right local partner. Rather than pursuing rapid expansion, dentsu focused on finding an agency whose culture, values, ambition, and entrepreneurial spirit aligned with its own. Over the past two years, dentsu Zambia and Blitz invested time building that relationship, working together, learning from one another, and establishing the trust needed for a long-term partnership. Founded in 2014 in Blantyre, Blitz Interactive Agency has grown into one of Malawi's most respected independent agencies, serving local, regional, and international brands. The agency's entrepreneurial approach and formidable reputation made it a natural fit for dentsu's vision of combining regional scale with deep local market expertise. "When we started operations in a one-room office in Blantyre in 2014, all I had was a belief that this would work," said George Damson, Managing Director of Blitz Interactive Agency. "From those early days to becoming a trusted partner to leading brands, its journey has been built on resilience, passion, and an ambition to create something meaningful. What makes this partnership special is that it was not built overnight. It grew through shared values, mutual respect, and a common vision for growth. "This is not about chasing quick wins. It's about creating a healthy, sustainable, and profitable business together, opening new opportunities for our people and delivering even greater value for our clients." For dentsu Zambia, the partnership reflects a deliberate commitment to finding the right long-term partner rather than the quickest route into a new market. "We've been supporting clients with interests in Malawi since 2020, and we always knew we wanted to strengthen our presence in the market," said Chishimba Musonda, Managing Director of dentsu Zambia. "But Marketing Spread weren't looking for a partnership simply for the sake of expansion. Marketing Spread were looking for the right people, the right culture, and the right entrepreneurial mindset. "Over the last two years, we've built a genuine relationship with George and the Blitz team. We saw the passion, ambition, and determination that have shaped their success. The decision to formalise this partnership was built on trust, patience, and a shared belief that together we can create something even stronger for our clients, our people, and the wider region." The partnership reflects dentsu Africa's strategy of combining regional scale with strong local expertise. As brands increasingly seek integrated solutions across multiple African markets, the combined strengths of dentsu and Blitz will create new opportunities for growth while delivering connected strategies rooted in local relevance and regional reach. More than an expansion into a new market, the partnership represents a shared commitment to building a lasting business, investing in local talent, and creating meaningful impact across Southern Africa.