Marketing, Media & Adtech MediaSense Picks Agencies for a Living. Ryan Kangisser Says Ignore the Demo.
MediaSense is in the room when the world's biggest advertisers decide which agency gets their money. Its Chief Strategy Officer, Ryan Kangisser, has sat through more agency pitches than most agency CEOs have given, and his advice to every CMO walking into one is simple: ask what they can't do, not what they can. MediaSense's research with the WFA found only 11% of multinational marketers think their media agency model is fit for the future, and three in four expect to change how they pay their agencies. Ryan corrected the host on what those numbers actually mean, then explained why the system still pays agencies to do more.
In this episode:
- What the 11% and 75% really measure, and why "fit for the future" is the worse finding
- Why time and materials is dying, and why pure outcome-based pay doesn't work either
- "Incentives drive behaviors": how commission and asset pricing reward more media and more assets
- Why get a dog and bark yourself: what world-class advertisers want from an agency in 2026
- Why AI is an adoption problem, not a technology problem
- The holding company diet: Omnicom, IPG, Publicis, LiveRamp and the agency brands that got sunset
- The missing middle: who trains the next planner when nobody hires juniors
- A sea of sameness: what happens when every brand follows the same signals
- Why brands would rather hire engineers than media buyers
- Stranded on a desert island with the entire cast of Curb Your Enthusiasm
Ryan Kangisser is Chief Strategy Officer of MediaSense. Find him on LinkedIn.
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