Media Buying Briefing: Dentsu’s agentic ambitions and how it plays out in the upfronts

Dentsu has undergone a shift in top management on a global scale, with new global CEO Takeshi Sano in charge of an agency holding company that sits just under the Big Three — Publicis, Omnicom and WPP — but has taken its lumps over the last few years as it tries to stay ahead of Havas and a raft of smaller holdco and independents clamoring to grow their businesses. 

Although the company has seen some executive turnover in the Americas, Beth Ann Kaminkow has now been in place as the CEO for the entire region for more than a year. She’s also charged with leading client service as global chief client officer. Meantime, at her side on the media end of Dentsu is a longtime Dentsu vet, Will Swayne, who’s global practice president of media and integrated solutions but has a long tenure within media agency Carat. 

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X’s advertiser base is beginning to resemble its pre-Musk era

Whether X’s ad business has recovered to pre-Elon Musk ownership levels has been one of those questions that’s somehow managed to be both endlessly debated and entirely unresolved for three years running. Turns out, the answer is yes — partly. The big spending advertisers who scattered when the controversial billionaire walked in are back. Data confirms it. 

The largest ad categories on X by U.S. ad spend in 2026 so far are media and entertainment, (24%), shopping (13%), software (12%), financial services (11%) and gaming (8%), according to data from Sensor Tower. And while the company wouldn’t share specific figures, Sensor Tower did note that these verticals are each spending at the “eight figure level” on the platform in the U.S.

Digging deeper, the top 10 advertisers on X by U.S. spend in 2026 so far are Comcast (372% y-o-y increase in spend), Amazon (8%), the NFL (166%), xAI (4,587%), Google (175%), Dell (127%), AT&T (226%), NBA (no change in spend), SpaceX (492%) and American Express (469%), per Sensor Tower, though the company declined to share specific ad spend figures. To compare, since the takeover, the advertiser profile shifted mostly to crypto, gambling and political-type brands.

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