Tech marketing firm R3 has unveiled its global agency new business wins for the first nine months of 2017 and it shows WPP to be the best performing of all the holding companies thus far. However, when it came to actual agencies, Omnicom’s BBDO was the best performing creative and Dentsu’s Vizeum the best performing for media.
According to the data, WPP has had over 1,300 wins for the year and $US579 million in annualized new business revenue, almost double that of the second-placed holding group (Interpublic).
WPP’s creative and media agencies have both been performing well, with wins including PSA Automotive, AB InBev, Revlon and Walgreens / Boots. “WPP has gone deep and wide in its new business this year,” said Greg Paull, principal of R3. “They have been strong across all continents and all major advertising markets,” he added.
Since 2002, R3 has been tracking new business wins and losses from more than 400 agencies across the globe. They use a consistent conversion factor to estimate annualized revenue across creative, digital and media agencies in order to identify the business impact of the pitch wins through each month.
Eleven per cent decline in holding company wins
This has seen an 11 per cent overall decline in new business wins versus the same period last year, mostly driven by reduced media reviews. “2016 was the year of VW, AT&T, Coty and other making major global media moves. This year, we’ve seen AB Inbev and a handful of others, but the majority of media moves have been local,” added Paull.
Amongst the top 10 creative account moves this year, five of them are based in the US with Verizon, Pepsi and Macy’s all making a move. Amongst the top 10 media agency transfers, four of them are from WPP.
MDC performing well in 2017
Beyond WPP, MDC has also had a positive start to the year, raking in $US80m of annualized revenue across 30 wins through Crispin Porter, 72&Sunny, KBS, Anomaly and other agencies. “Seven months into Goldman Sach’s strategic investment, it appears the agency group is driving new business and new relationships,” said Paull.
