What a year 2025 has been. We’ve seen huge acquisitions, mergers, consolidations and more. And amongst it all, the flow of new agency business never really slowed down. In fact, our numbers are showing nearly 250 separate account moves over the course of the year—and those are just the ones we know about.
But in the cold (or rather hot as it is summer) light of day, who recorded the most new business over the course of the year? You’re about to find out.
Just a reminder, we split independent and holding company media agencies for this yearly round up, giving the size of the accounts they tend to work on. Australia’s creative indie scene is so hot, there’s no need.
Thanks to our friends at COMvergence, we have access to a trove of account move information from the first three quarters of this year. All media agency billings figures reported come from COMvergence’s data, though we converted them from American to Aussie Dollars ourselves.
Our approach to ranking creative agencies was slightly less scientific and involved a lot of counting. But more on that in a moment.
Holding Company Media Agencies
Bronze – Zenith
Taking third place on the New Business Podiums is Zenith. The team led by Jason Tonelli chalked up six account wins over the year and winning in the order of $159 million in billings—$112 of which are new billings rather than retentions.
The Publicis-owned agency’s big wins were Flight Centre (roughly $41 million). We understand Zenith was main local shop on the Mars win (about $51 million) and on the Aldi retention (about $45 million), though both clients have bespoke agency models. This month it also wrested control back of the Honda media account. A very strong year indeed.
We don’t dish out fourth place prizes but if we did, Omnicom’s PHD would take it, after it won $108 million in net new billings.
Silver – EssenceMediacom
WPP Media’s EssenceMediacom takes second place this year after it won $216.7 million in new business. With retentions stripped out, however, that figure drops to just under $159 million.
Its big win was Lion, worth nearly $75 million. That was an account win story you read first in B&T, too. Its other big wins were Isuzu ($35.8 million) and the NRL, worth about $22 million.
Pippa Berlocher and team didn’t have it all their own way, however, losing Levande and Moonpig to Havas and Half Dome, respectively. Those losses only amounted to $3.2 million together. EssenceMediacom was unfortunately caught in the global crossfire of the hefty Mars loss to Publicis and Bayer loss to IPG, too.
Gold – Mindshare
But taking the top spot this year is Mindshare, EssenceMediacom’s WPP Media stablemate.
The agency won $176 million in billings over the past year, all of which were brand new billings.
Its important wins were Citibank, worth nearly $11 million and MG’s internal combustion engine account, valued at about $21 million.
But the big deal was Suncorp, worth $140 million. Now, Suncorp does technically have a bespoke WPP Open model but B&T understands that Mindshare led the charge on the landmark win, so we’re chalking this one up to Maria Grivas and co.
If we zoom out further and look at each holdco’s performance against each other locally, WPP Media is ahead of Publicis in second and what was IPG Mediabrands in third. It’s a marked difference from the situation globally.
Independent Media Agencies
Bronze – Match & Wood
Taking the bronze this year is Match & Wood. The Melbourne indie won nearly $33 million in billings from just two accounts.
Its biggest was the $21 million retention of Snooze. It won Renault as a new client, with the French automaker billing $11.8 million.
Silver – Nunn Media
After topping the new business wins in 2024, Nunn Media takes the silver medal this year. It chalked up $28.5 million in new business, all of which were new billings.
The biggest win of the year was ServiceNow, which bills in the order of $5.4 million, followed by the Old Persons Advocacy Network ($4.4 million) and Wallet Wizard ($4.2 million). Its Webjet and Neilson Financial wins aren’t to be sniffed at either, though we don’t have the billings figures for those.
Gold – Sparro by Brainlabs
But storming into first place this year was Sparro by Brainlabs. The global independent network won, and we hope you’re sitting down, $63.6 million in billings during the first three quarters of the year alone. And they’re all new billings.
Sparro’s biggest win of its 13 new accounts was Australian Council of Trade Unions account, which bills in the region of $20.4 million. Its second largest was Jaycar, which stands at $12.5 million.
Creative Agencies
Here’s where it gets slightly less scientific. Without reliable billings figures, it’s harder to be definitive on the nation’s creative agencies.
At B&T, we track and rank each account win we get wind of, write them down on a piece of butcher’s paper and stick it to the wall in the office. We also rank the agencies every month on our regular New Business Winners podiums. So using a combination of both, here are the agencies who came out on top.
We’ll add, too, that TBWA, Clemenger BBDO, BMF and VML were very unlucky to miss out on the podiums this year. Clemenger and VML topped the new business winner podiums once this year, TBWA found itself second twice. BMF’s Westpac win and Tourism Tassie retentions were very impressive, too.
We’ll also note that IPG and WPP found themselves sharing the top podium spot in January after splitting Kimberly-Clark’s account between them.
Bronze – Droga5
Droga5 had two sizeable wins this year, Transport for New South Wales’ Road and Maritime Safety portfolio. This win will see it develop overarching behaviour change campaigns and comms to nix drink driving, speeding, enforcement driver fatigue and maritime safety. It’s an important account, for sure and saw Droga5 place third on last month’s podium.
But the big win was the full-service account for Optus in what was one of the most hotly contested pitches of the year. It filled the telco-shaped hole the Accenture-owned found itself with after Telstra moved its account to Bear Meets Eagle on Fire and TBWA under the +61 bespoke agency model.
“This is an incredible moment for us, to partner with a team and a business like Optus whose ambitions are so aligned to ours. Optus represents much of our own values—a provocateur, an innovator, a pioneer,” Matt Michael, Droga’s chief exec said.
The win was somewhat coloured by Optus’ repeated outages in the latter half of the year.
Silver – Howatson+Company
Indie Howatson+Company had four account wins this year: ABN Group, Vodafone and Myer, as well as the full-service UNSW account.
The Surry Hills-based agency found itself on the third podium spot twice this year and once on the top spot with its Vodafone win.
Agency boss Chris Howatson told B&T: “Vodafone are seeking a resurgence of their brand as a pathway to growth. There’s few better assignments and one we’re energised to take on.”
Howatson+Commpany’s two third-place finishes over the year were for ABN Group and Myer. All told, it’s been another very strong showing for the agency, capped off by winning the VIC Agency of the Year trophy at last month’s B&T Awards.
Gold – 72andSunny
But storming to the top this year is none other than 72andSunny. We recorded five account wins for the agency this year: Princess Cruises, Deputy, Cadillac and the AFL as well as its largest win, Big W.
The agency found itself at the top of B&T’s podiums for its Big W win and second for its Princess Cruises win.
Big W tasked 72andSunny with its brand and creative strategy, as well as integrated retail and brand campaigns that extend through earned, social media, and brand experience.
Princess Cruises, meanwhile, charged the agency with developing a local brand positioning and campaigns to drive brand familiarity.
And that’s that! What a year, we’ll see you all back in here in January to review December’s account wins.
