A report from the European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA), developed in partnership with Kantar, exposes a fundamental contradiction at the heart of agency-client relationships. Nearly all CMOs surveyed - 94% - believe agencies can function as true partners they can trust. Yet nearly half ran a pitch within the past year, and 65% of those pitches resulted in an agency change.

The CMOs' Expectations Report analyzed responses from 141 companies across 22 European markets. EACA worked with Kantar to analyze both closed-question analytics and open-ended semantic analysis, delivering a hierarchy of what convinces CMOs when selecting or continuing to work with agencies. The research covered 95% of respondents in marketing, communication, or top management roles across consumer goods, banking, insurance, energy, technology, and services sectors.

According to the report, partnerships lasting five years or longer produce far more effective communications than those with shorter tenures. Research into Effie Europe 2025 entries demonstrates that long-term relationships correlate with effectiveness and success. Yet constant turnover makes it harder for agencies to behave as true partners.

Trust emerged as the top factor, selected as first choice by 49% of CMOs. Deep business involvement followed at 41%, both ranking well ahead of creativity. However, both can only develop over time and face constant undermining from inefficient repitching. Six out of 10 winning ideas from pitches never get implemented.

Creative excellence remains important - a top-three factor for 72% of respondents - but only when paired with strategic intelligence, operational reliability, and strong brand stewardship.

"This report confirms the anecdotal evidence from the industry that the agency remit is continuing to expand, with client expectations at an all-time high, while output timelines are shrinking," according to Charley Stoney, CEO of EACA. "It is critical that the industry tackles these expectations and work with advertisers to help them flex remuneration models that pay for this expanded remit, included technology investment."

Stoney added that the report supports EACA's opinion that agencies need to move away from time-based payment structures toward an agile model that works with a blend of human and artificial intelligence services.

Advertisers today operate in increasingly complex ecosystems. The data shows they work with an average of 4.7 different agency types. While agencies score well on creativity and reputation, they underdeliver on proactivity, business immersion, and forward-looking strategic guidance.

A significant number of clients are merely satisfied - 45% - or content with their agencies. Only 26% report being very satisfied. This gap reveals an opportunity to shift more CMOs into the highest satisfaction category.

The artificial intelligence infrastructure race has accelerated across the advertising industry. Multiple platforms deployed agentic AI systems capable of autonomous campaign execution during early 2026. Yahoo DSP integrated agentic capabilities directly into its demand-side platform on January 6, creating systems where AI agents continuously monitor campaigns, diagnose performance issues, and execute corrective actions autonomously.

PubMatic launched AgenticOS with live campaigns running, working with independent agency Butler/Till and Geloso Beverage Group's Clubtails brand during December 2025 to execute early agentic campaigns. The deployment used natural-language input to guide autonomous campaign recommendations, execution, and real-time optimization within predefined parameters.

The EACA report identifies six areas where agencies must simultaneously deliver to ensure the transition from merely satisfied clients to very satisfied ones takes place.

Agencies must become AI-native, integrating automation, prediction, and data intelligence into every layer of work. AI is the number one capability clients expect from agencies in the future. 35% rate AI enhancement as high priority, with another 41% scoring it 4 out of 5.

They must be strategic architects capable of shaping brand trajectories and contributing to business decisions. Clients regard agencies as lacking in excellence when it comes to business strategy. They expect agencies to go beyond execution and act as consultants.

Agencies need to deliver operational excellence - consistently, reliably, and with disciplined governance. 32% of CMOs rank "delivering on time and in quality" as their top selection factor. Another 39% rank it as their number two priority when choosing an agency team.

They must be creatively transformative, blending human imagination with technology-driven formats. 50% of respondents see agencies as creators and 21% as explorers.

They should be embedded collaborators, functioning as extensions of the client team. The ideal account team is expected to be proactive and know the brand and market deeply. Many clients feel that agencies could be more immersed in their businesses.

They require cultural intelligence - able to decode audiences, markets, and societal signals. Breakthrough work based on genuine insights is one of the top three outputs clients want. 31% rank it number one, 33% number two, and 36% number three.

IAB Tech Lab unveiled an agentic roadmap on January 6, extending OpenRTB and existing standards with modern protocols to scale AI agents without rebuilding digital advertising. Anthony Katsur, chief executive officer at IAB Tech Lab, stated the organization will make a significant engineering investment focused solely on artificial intelligence development.

The competitive landscape for holding companies has intensified significantly. Mark Read stepped down as WPP chief executive on June 9, 2025, after seven years. The announcement came as WPP struggled to reclaim its position as the world's largest advertising agency by revenue after being overtaken by Publicis during Read's final year in charge.

Omnicom agreed to acquire Interpublic Group in an all-stock transaction valued at $13.3 billion, announced on December 9, 2024. The combined organization employs over 100,000 practitioners across media, precision marketing, customer relationship management, data analytics, digital commerce, advertising, healthcare, public relations, and branding services.

WPP announced a 7,000-person workforce reduction on August 7, 2025, as financial pressures mounted. The company maintained its full-year 2025 guidance for like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs decline of 3-5%.

The industry consolidation comes as technology platforms enable direct advertising capabilities, reducing reliance on traditional agency models. Kantar identified ten marketing trends that will shape brand strategy and advertising investments during 2026. The trends span AI-powered purchasing agents, retail media expansion, creator effectiveness measurement, and synthetic data implementation.

According to Kantar, 24% of AI users already employ AI shopping assistants, signaling widespread adoption of delegated purchase support. The shift moves marketing focus from capturing human attention to predisposing autonomous agents that execute transactions.

The EACA report arrives as the advertising technology sector gains new frameworks designed to enable artificial intelligence agents to interact with multiple platforms. Ad Context Protocol launched on October 15, 2025, providing a unified interface for AI agents to discover inventory, compare pricing, and activate campaigns across different advertising platforms without requiring custom integration work for each system.

LiveRamp introduced agentic orchestration capabilities on October 1, 2025, enabling autonomous AI agents to access identity resolution, segmentation, activation, measurement, clean rooms, and partner networks through governed APIs. According to Matt Karasick, head of product at LiveRamp, "AI agents are only as smart as the data they can access."

The technological transformation extends beyond individual platforms. Amazon launched Ads Agent on November 12, 2025, an artificial intelligence agent that automates campaign planning, launching, and optimization through natural language commands. The system creates campaign structures from uploaded media plans, recommends targeting segments by analyzing thousands of audience options, and generates SQL queries for analytics without requiring coding expertise.

McKinsey data indicates $1.1 billion in equity investment flowed into agentic AI in 2024, with job postings related to this technology increasing 985% from 2023 to 2024. The consulting firm's Technology Trends Outlook 2025 identifies agentic AI as artificial intelligence systems capable of autonomous planning and execution that represent a shift from chatbot interactions to virtual coworkers managing complex workflows independently.

"This report decodes expectations, quantifies the performance gaps, and outlines how agencies must evolve - structurally, culturally and technologically - to secure long-term partnership and market leadership in the coming decade," Stoney stated. "Clients too must consider how they interact with their agencies and whether they are truly creating an environment that builds trust and allows the development of deep business understanding and insight to feed through into their communications."

The research methodology combined quantitative rankings with qualitative semantic analysis. EACA worked closely with Kantar to deliver both a clear hierarchy of CMO priorities and a deeper understanding of the emotional and cultural expectations shaping client-agency relationships.

The report reveals that the contradiction between stated beliefs about agency partnerships and actual behavior in constantly switching agencies creates inefficiencies across the ecosystem. Constant pitching where 60% of winning ideas never get implemented wastes resources for both clients and agencies.

For agencies, the path forward requires simultaneous excellence across six dimensions while navigating an industry landscape being reshaped by consolidation and technological transformation. The expansion of agency remits means clients expect more capabilities while timelines for delivery shrink.

For clients, the research suggests they must examine whether their procurement and relationship management practices actually support the partnership model they claim to value. Creating environments that build trust and allow deep business understanding to develop requires commitment beyond what single-year contracts and frequent pitches can provide.

The findings carry particular weight as the advertising industry undergoes one of its most significant transformations in decades. The combination of AI-driven automation, platform consolidation, and changing client expectations creates both challenges and opportunities for agency-client relationships.

Timeline

Summary

Who: The European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA), in partnership with Kantar, surveyed 141 companies across 22 European markets. 95% of respondents held marketing, communication, or top management roles across sectors including consumer goods, banking, insurance, energy, technology, and services.

What: The CMOs' Expectations Report reveals a fundamental contradiction - while 94% of CMOs believe agencies can be trusted partners, nearly half ran a pitch within the past year and 65% of those resulted in agency changes. Trust (49% first choice) and deep business involvement (41%) rank ahead of creativity. The report identifies six areas where agencies must deliver: AI-native capabilities, strategic architecture, operational excellence, creative transformation, embedded collaboration, and cultural intelligence. AI is the number one capability clients expect, with 35% rating it high priority.

When: The report was released in 2026, analyzing Effie Europe 2025 entries and surveying CMOs about current expectations. The timing coincides with major industry shifts including agentic AI deployment across platforms in late 2025 and early 2026, and holding company consolidation through the Omnicom-IPG merger.

Where: The research covers 22 European markets. The findings apply to agency-client relationships across the European advertising ecosystem, where advertisers work with an average of 4.7 different agency types. The report has implications globally as similar patterns affect advertising markets worldwide.

Why: The report matters because it quantifies a destructive pattern - constant pitching and agency switching undermines the trust and deep business understanding that CMOs claim to value most. With 60% of winning pitch ideas never implemented, the current model wastes resources while preventing agencies from delivering the partnership value clients say they need. As AI capabilities become the top client priority and agency remits expand while timelines shrink, understanding these expectations becomes critical for agencies to evolve structurally, culturally, and technologically.

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