This Week's Agency News Round-Up

November 5th 2025 - Mergers, Movers, and Campaign Creators

4 NOVEMBER 2025

1. Top Stories

Mega-merger alert! As IPG merges with Omnicom, Jen Faull, Deputy Editor of The Drum asks what’s next for the McCann brand. Read The Big Interview with Javier Campopiano here.

Open AI for Business and PayPal announced their new collaboration to expand agentic commerce in ChatGPT and power instant checkout. Find out more.

2. Account Moves & Launches

New Agency & brand partnerships

Neverland, an independent agency, has partnered with former Stripe Communications managing director Chris Stevenson to create Pink Neon, a specialist agency focusing on PR, social media, influencer marketing and brand-funded programming. BDaily has the full story here.

Enjoy Digital enjoyed a warm welcome from their brand new client Medical Protection Society as they attended the brand’s marketing festival and delivered a session on “how to get the best from your digital assets. Learn more right here.

Manchester-born high-street retailer KENJI has partnered with brand communications agency IF. to take the brand into social commerce with TikTok Shop. Read the full coverage from Prolific North.

Purpose Media is celebrating the successful execution of a campaign to help launch Derby’s exciting new entertainment arena, Vaillant Live. Marketing Derby has more on the story.

3. People & Leadership

Hires, promotions and notable exits

Connective3 are hiring again, this time looking for a mix of digital experts to join their teams in Leeds and Manchester after another year of positive growth. Could you be the right fit, find out here.

Independent marketing group Audience Collective has appointed Simon Price as group managing director and Kathryn Ellis to lead strategy at AC Media. Find out more from our friends at Prolific North.

4. Big Collaborations of The Week

Standout campaigns, launches or stunts

Aldi UK’s much loved carrot returned with a little help from McCann Manchester and Craft Worldwide as the onslaught of Christmas campaigns officially ramps up. Check in with Kevin The Carrot.

5. Trends & Talk

Conversational AI is Becoming Transactional AI, So Could Ecommerce Finally Win The Abandoned Basket Battle?

As Open AI and PayPal join forces to bring instant checkout and agentic commerce to ChatGPT, we’re seeing more than just shiny new features, we’re seeing a deeper shift: the shift from conversational to transactional AI.

With that in motion, is it possible we’re about to see one of the biggest battles in ecommerce, the reduction of abandoned baskets, start to be won?

Abandoned baskets have long been a persistent headache for retail brands, with shoppers often abandoning purchases due to friction in the checkout process. From poor user experience, to unexpected shipping costs; we’ve all abandoned a basket.

BUT, with product recommendations, personalised assistance and now payments all embedded into one conversation, AI could drastically reduce drop-off and make the online shopping experience truly seamless.

For brands and agencies alike, the implications are huge: campaigns, UX design, and even creative copy could soon be crafted around AI-mediated purchase flows, rather than traditional landing pages.

The big question: will this create a new battleground for customer attention and trust, or is this finally the endgame for lost baskets?

6. Quick Hits

Opportunity: For folks in B2B marketing, Jake Kitchiner and Chris Peters have launched “B2B Unplugged:Creator Sessions, a new kind of B2B event. Find out more and save your spot right here.

Expansion: Embryo has officially joined AMIN Worldwide, a global alliance of over 50 independent marketing agencies to deliver best-in-class campaigns on a global scale.