UM

When UM describes 2025, the words “reset”, “resilience” and “repositioning” all appear. The choice of those words is notable and describe what has been a challenging year for the Omnicom agency.

It lost three of its largest clients in Optus (to Accenture Song), Lion (to EssenceMediacom) and HBF Health (to Starcom). Zurich and Emirates also headed for the departure lounge.

UM managed to win six clients, including Australian luxury furniture retailer King Living, Village Roadshow and Bayer, but overall media billings took a hit.

Of course, UM’s 2025 was dominated by Omnicom’s takeover of IPG which concluded in November. It’s important to assess the agency’s performance within that context.

The agency said that rather than standing still, it set about building stronger and more resilient foundations for future growth.

This included sharpening its ‘Full Colour Media’ market proposition by upskilling its media specialists into “end-to-end business partners” who are grounded with “commercial acumen” and focused on “measurable business impact”.

It’s not quite clear how this focus differentiates UM from the rest of the pack—surely this is table stakes for a media agency—but it is clear that a reset and cultural change is in motion.

Anathea Ruys, who led UM throughout 2025, left at the start of 2026. She was succeeded by Stephanie Douglas-Neal, who returned to Omnicom after a successful stint at EssenceMediacom.

Long-serving Australian Government lead Brett Elliott left in 2025 to take up a role at Dentsu, and was succeeded by Lisa McMillan.

Meanwhile rising star and former chief connections director Rahma El Sayed, who was a B&T’s 30 Under 30 winner in the media planner category, left to take up a role as a media planner at Westpac.

In spite of the upheaval, UM won MFA Awards for the Queensland beer XXXX and the National Office for Child Safety, as well as two APAC Effies for ‘A Masterclass in Government Sex Talks’, a campaign that targeted 20-to-34-year-old Australians to increase awareness and destigmatiae regular STI testing.

The overall quality of its government and client work is impressive (see examples below).

With the likes of strategy chief Raj Gupta, investment lead Brittany Crowley, planning lead Michael Mellington, UM has a strong and experienced leadership bench.

Douglas-Neal, a highly-respected media executive who was the MD of EssenceMedicom’s Sydney business, will add new energy and vigour to an agency in transition.

UM’s headcount figure is based on Omnicom’s global reporting methodology. It includes shared functions and other capabilities from across Omnicom that work with UM. Hence, it is not directly comparable with the figure quoted in last year’s Agency Scorecard.

In assessing UM’s performance, the Advisory Panel admired UM’s honesty about it being a reset year, and believes the agency will come out the other side stronger.

Early evidence suggests that is the case.