Bob Lord’s Vision for Horizon Media and the Future of Agencies
A Deep Dive into Bob's priorities and ethos as the agency’s first-ever president
Agency Business is brought to you by Brian Wieser’s Madison and Wall, in collaboration with Olivia Morley's FusionFront Media.
Hello and welcome to Agency Business for the week of March 3, 2025. We publish new podcast episodes every Monday at 6 a.m. eastern. Episode 11 is available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
Since joining Horizon Media Holdings as its first-ever president, Bob Lord has been tasked with leading the independent media giant through a new, transformative era—one where technology, automation, and data-driven decision-making play an increasingly central role.
In one of his first in-depth interviews since joining Horizon, Bob joins co-hosts Olivia Morley and Brian Wieser on Agency Business.
He shares his vision for the future of agency-client relationships, explains why legacy pricing models may be on the way out, and breaks down how technology is shifting the balance of power in media buying.
With holding companies under mounting pressure and brands demanding more transparency, Bob is candid about where Horizon is headed next.
Agency Business is sponsored by FirmDecisions, part of Ebiquity plc, the world's largest marketing contract compliance specialist, dedicated to enhancing commercial transparency in client-agency relationships.
News of the Week: Discussed in Episode 11
WPP reports decline in Q4 2024, weak outlook for 2025
MW: It wasn’t so much a surprise that the current quarter was negative, but that their outlook for 2025 was so poor, especially considering the new account wins and easy comparables. During the investor call, it was surprising there wasn’t more of a focus on the creative agencies. While maybe there is a plan for a return to growth, I don’t think it’s been clearly articulated publicly.
FFM: At the same time, WPP’s investing more in AI integration and technology, like the WPP Open platform. Clearly that’s a priority for the company. Based on almost every agency technology demonstration I’ve seen, I expect to see the tech integrated unevenly across the organization. That will probably benefit media buying processes within GroupM long before it benefits WPP’s struggling creative agencies.
Stagwell reports strong Q4 2024, positive outlook for 2025
MW: It’s true that there’s almost an order of magnitude of difference in size between Stagwell and WPP, but the contrast in trends was stark. However, I’m mindful that Stagwell started 2023 thinking they’d grow 10% to 14% excluding advocacy and ended the year down 4%, so guidance and actual outcomes can have a wide gap for this company.
FFM: My first inclination is to wonder if companies will consider Stagwell more often, given the Omnicom-IPG acquisition takes IPG off the table. Stagwell offers an alternative to the larger, more bureaucratic holding companies. Like IPG, Stagwell operates relatively differently than the others do, with much less integrated agencies that tend to have strong brand identities. Stagwell also has classic creative agencies, like the recently-renamed Crispin and 72andSunny. Plus, fast-growing shops like Gale with deep expertise in areas like CRM, could be a boon too.
MW: For our clients, we published some aggregated industry data for 2024. Maybe the ~3% organic growth isn’t too surprising, but it might surprise many that profit margins were at their highest level ever last year.
FFM: The growth isn’t surprising, but the profit margins you calculated are. Is this because of principal-based buying?
Notable Guests from Past Episodes
Tim Nollen, longtime ad industry sell-side analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd. and previously at J.P. Morgan and Bear Stearns
Kevin Wassong, founder and CEO of mktg.ai
Samir Balwani, founder and CEO of independent media agency QRY
Chrissie Hanson, CEO of OMD USA
Ruben Schreurs, CEO of Ebiquity
Kamran Asghar, CEO and co-founder of independent media agency Crossmedia USA
Joanne Davis, founder of Joanne Davis Consulting
Josh Lane and Matt Ferebee, founders of indie agency FerebeeLane
Jay Pattisall, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research
Paul Woolmington, CEO of Canvas Worldwide