ID Comms CEO Tom Denford and Chief Client Officer David Indo are devoting their podcast Media Snack over the next couple of months to helping brands prepare for the upcoming tsunami of media reviews—dubbed "Mediapalooza"--that are breaking now through 2027. 

They noted in the first episode dedicated to this perfect storm of media pitch activity that they expect a total of $70 billion in media reviews to take place in 2026 and 2027 with about $30 billion this year and $40 billion next year. That's multiple times the typical yearly average of between $15 billion and $17 billion in reviewed media spend. 

Last Friday the duo focused on how marketers should plan for the event.  

"Treat Mediapalooza as a 5 to 6 quarter journey, not a 12 week sprint," suggested Denford. Which pretty much means starting now.  

The first thing to do is audit current contracts, remuneration models, governance frameworks, and staffing with an eye to identifying gaps in performance data, weak termination clauses, or fuzzy areas in scope that have created tension.  

As the pair note in a summary of the podcast on the ID Comms website, "A structured contract and capability review at this stage surfaces the foundations you will either fix or replace." 

Step two: plan your brand's media future, including the broad strokes of an operating model as well as defining "who does what internally and externally, from data ownership to AI activation to retail media execution. Clarify governance and the technology stack that will hold it all together." 

With that blueprint in hand, a marketer can then sort out the type of agency ecosystem it wants: a single global partner, a network of specialists, or something else, as well as potential remuneration models.  

Next comes what the firm calls the "heavy lift" of preparation: building  evaluation criteria, scopes of work, briefing materials, and remuneration frameworks. And importantly, having internal discussions that align marketing and procurement and having scenario plans for when there is disagreement.  "Those conversations are far easier inside your own building than in front of agencies," notes ID Comms. 

The next steps are the pitch and transition, which, with all the prep work beforehand, should be a relatively smooth process. On paper at least.