Novo's New Ad Partner

Novo Nordisk has a new media partner. The drugmaker just named Omnicom as its agency of record for advertising, ending a six-year run with WPP that started back in 2020.

The switch comes at a busy moment for the company. Novo Nordisk has been pouring money into promoting its GLP-1 receptor agonists, Ozempic and Wegovy, and it doesn’t look like that’s slowing down.

Here’s some context on the drugs themselves. Both work by mimicking a hormone your body already makes, one that helps regulate appetite, insulin release, and blood sugar levels. The FDA has cleared Ozempic for the management of type 2 diabetes and Wegovy for chronic weight management. Neither one is available without a prescription.

Liz Skrbkova, who leads US media and stakeholder relations at Novo Nordisk, said the company wants to keep building its consumer-facing strategy and reach patients through newer channels. That’s not surprising. Pharmaceutical companies across the industry have been leaning harder into direct-to-consumer advertising, and Novo Nordisk is a prime example.

Just how much are they spending? According to Reuters, Novo Nordisk put close to $500 million into Wegovy and Ozempic ads during the first nine months of 2025 alone. That’s more than double what rival Eli Lilly spent over the same stretch.

Some of that budget went toward a splashy moment: Novo Nordisk’s first-ever Super Bowl ad, which aired earlier this year and put the spotlight on the oral version of Wegovy.

That’s actually a bigger deal than it might sound. Company executives have called it the only oral GLP-1 medicine built on their patented delivery technology. Getting a peptide-based drug to work in pill form isn’t easy, since these medications usually break down in the digestive tract, which is why most GLP-1 treatments are injections. The approval leaned on data from the OASIS clinical trial program, and an oral version that survives digestion while still working is a genuine manufacturing achievement.

There’s also a seasonal angle here. Novo Nordisk executives have pointed out that interest in losing weight tends to rise and fall throughout the year, with a predictable spike around New Year’s resolutions. So the timing of this agency switch may not be random. It could be setting the stage for a bigger marketing push once that seasonal demand kicks in.

Omnicom, meanwhile, has been on something of a tear lately. The agency closed a roughly $9 billion all-stock acquisition of Interpublic Group back in November 2025, a deal that made it the largest advertising and marketing holding company in the world. Revenue over the past year hit $22.37 billion, and second-quarter 2026 sales alone came in at $6.56 billion, up 63.4% from the year before.

Worth keeping in mind: drug advertising doesn’t operate in a regulatory vacuum. The FDA requires that drug marketing and advertising present a fair balance between how well a drug works and its risks, and companies have to disclose meaningful side effect information alongside their marketing claims. As spending on GLP-1 ads climbs, so does scrutiny of how these medications get promoted to the public.

Cost and access remain sticking points too. GLP-1 drugs aren’t cheap, and the price varies widely depending on your insurer, whether that’s Medicare, Medicaid, or a private plan. Some public health experts have raised concerns that heavy advertising could outpace what patients can actually afford or access.

For now, this deal puts Omnicom in charge of media strategy for one of the most heavily marketed drug categories in the country. And given how competitive the obesity and diabetes treatment market has become, don’t expect the advertising to quiet down anytime soon.