GroupM Agencies Dominate Global New Business Media Wins For Q1-Q3

According to the latest global media agency study New Business Barometer for Q1-Q3 2020 published by COMvergence, Wavemaker came out as the top global media agency in new business results with total new business value of $US1.1 billion (including $US370M of retentions) during the first nine months of 2020.

This is largely due to strong performances in China and the US. MediaCom ranked second by scoring total new business value of $US1004 million (including $US213M of retentions) followed closely by Mindshare.

GroupM landed the top spot among the top global media agency groups – $US2.5 billion ahead of its closest pursuer. WPP media agency group’s showed positive overall results in most markets, and scored the highest retention rate among the six groups (66 per cent, $US1.2 billion of retained billings). The group performed particularly well in China ($US1.8 billion of new client wins & retentions) and US (+$800M of new client wins).

Publicis Media ranked second in terms of overall new business value (despite recording no incremental billings, but succeeded in defending $1.4B from existing client billings), and Dentsu takes third place.

Looking at the pitches and moves concluded in Q3 only, Mediabrands and Initiative have shown the best performance, adding respectively $US504 million and $442 million of net new business billings.

In Q1-Q3 2020, COMvergence assessed 1,915 media account moves and retentions across 45 countries totalling ~$13.8B ($4B lower than in the same period last year). The total represents about seven per cent of the global agency billings ($US203B) studied by COMvergence.

USA dominated the media pitch activity in Q1-Q3 2020 in terms of spend volume ($US4.5B), representing 33 per cent of the total spend put in review. China followed with nearly $US3 billion in concluded moves and pitches. Together, China and the US represent more than half of the total spend volume reviewed between January and September 2020.

The average retention rate is 30 per cent (vs. 24% in Q1-Q3 2109).

The 10 largest local pitches ($US2.5B in total) were recorded either in China: Unilever, PepsiCo, Master Kong, Shanghai GM, Daimler; or the US: Novo Nordisk, Gilead Sciences, RB (Reckitt Benckiser), Clorox and Kroger.

Some $SU 5.1B (or 37 per cent of the total media spend reviewed during Q1-Q3 2020) were not previously handled by the international agency networks/groups. While $US1.1B (or eight per cent) went to independents or non-international network agencies. This includes Horizon Media ($US340M) in the US; Madison Media ($US148M) in India; Pilot ($US111M) in Germany, Heroiks Media ($US55M) in France.

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