Havas reported 2.5% organic net revenue growth over the first nine months of 2026, but the bigger story is the increasingly competitive second tier of holding companies trying to separate from Publicis, Omnicom and WPP.
The new agency middle
Consultants point to Dentsu, Havas, Horizon and Stagwell as the most closely watched challengers, with Brandtech Group, Dept, MSQ and others also in the conversation. Tom Denford, CEO of ID Comms, calls the four a ‘Red Ocean’ group.
“We call them the Red Ocean agencies because they’re really in a fight for survival, and not all of them will be around in three to five years’ time.”
His advice: lead with culture, DNA, people and service rather than trying to out-scale the Big Three.
Where the challengers stand
- Dentsu: Carat’s ‘Difference Engineered’ positioning arrived last week, but consultants say the parent company still hasn’t articulated a clear market story; its Japanese heritage could be a distinct advantage.
- Stagwell: The clearest go-to-market strategy, powered by the Stagwell Media consolidation and ‘The Media Machine’ platform, with a pitch aimed at mid-sized clients who want a holdco solution without the Big Three’s weight.
- Havas and Horizon: Their international partnership looks complementary on paper, but has produced little new business so far; Havas’s ‘desire’-driven story is still hard for some analysts to decode.
Why marketers should pay attention
Robin Bonn, CEO of Co:definery, describes the second tier as ‘Goldilocks’ agencies: bigger than independents, smaller than the holdcos. The opportunity is combining holdco scale with independent intimacy. “Not every major marketer wants or needs the size and complexity that comes with the largest agencies,” said Hasan Ramusevic of Harmonium.
Manuel Reyes of Cortex Media says the second tier is already showing more open contract negotiations, a greater willingness to partner with in-house agencies and a readiness to share data. For marketing teams re-evaluating agency rosters, that’s a practical point of difference.
The risk, Bonn warns, is that without sharper differentiation these challengers simply replicate the very organizations they’re trying to challenge. AI, which should be an advantage, can pull everyone toward the same homogeneous offering.
Source: Digiday
