This Week's Agency News Round-Up

October 22nd 2025 - Mergers, Movers, and Campaign Creators

21 OCTOBER 2025

1. Top Stories

Fashion marketplace Vinted appointed Axe + Saw, London-based communications agency, on an owned social media brief following a three-way competitive pitch.

Congratulations Axe + Saw! Read the feature in Campaign Live

2. Account Moves & Launches

New Agency & brand partnerships

Channel 4 announced a new chapter with the launch of Partner Labs; an in-house Channel 4 Sales creative partnerships and sponsorship team. Read Channel 4’s announcement here.

3. People & Leadership

Hires, promotions and notable exits

Lucky Generals hires Tamara Conyngham, former head of strategy at Droga5 London, as their new strategy partner. Here’s how they celebrated Tamara’s move on LinkedIn

Chloe Rushmere, former THG marketer, has been named as the new Head of Content UK at Readly. Check out the coverage from our friends over at Prolific North

4. Big Collaborations of The Week

Standout campaigns, launches or stunts

WPP expanded their partnership with Google, and their AI experts and creatives came together to make “The Generational Assist”, a World Cup-inspired experiment showcasing some of Veo 3.1's new features. See what they created in WPP’s LinkedIn post.

Specsavers and Golin London tackle ‘Resting Squint Face’ with a humorous campaign aimed at highlighting how regular squinting can be a symptom of presbyopia. “This is a Squintervention”. Read the full story covered by Little Black Book Online

IMA, Open Partners and Hope & Glory PR worked with Autotrader to highlight the life moments that make you realise you need a new car in a new campaign aimed to reach audiences aged 25 to 34. Here’s how The Drum broke the news on LinkedIn

5. Trends & Talk

In the age of AI, “bothism” is better.

The tech arms race intensifies. As WPP & Google sign a five-year deal to embed Google’s AI tools into agency workflows, it’s clear these major players, at least, are doubling down on AI and tech. And let’s be real, they won’t be the last.

At the same time, consumers are crying out for more meaningful moments, calling out AI generated content, while the creative industry is promising us human creativity is still the key differentiator for agencies looking to cut through the AI haze (and Business Insider can tell you more about that right here).

So, agencies, what do you do? Join the tech arms race or pivot from prompts and embrace creativity? The answer, I think, is to employ “bothism”.

The agencies that will thrive as we continue through 2026 will learn to blend the latest tech (AI included) with human insight and creativity. Where AI can drive the quantity, people will provide the quality.