Accenture Song makes the COMvergence New Business Barometer for the first time, but its two familiar names that led the pack. At a group level, Omnicom edges Publicis Groupe on new business, but not on net billings. Meanwhile, global retention rates are at their lowest level in eight years. B&T has analysed the half-yearly report below.
EssenceMediacom has topped COMvergence’s New Business Barometer after winning the Lion (AU$76 million in billings) and NRL ($23 million) media accounts in the first half of the 2025.
The agency’s half-yearly wins (worth $120 million in billings) more than doubled its haul from 2024 ($52 million); however, net billings after losses dropped to $62 million.
PHD ($86 million) came second, largely due to winning the Bunnings ($68 million) account from Initiative. Zenith is next winning a huge Mars account (see below)
For the first time, Accenture Song made the top four for the first time after Optus ($64 million) called them in. That win was one of the largest in the first half of 2025, although has been usurped by WPP Media’s recent Suncorp Group win.
In the first half of 2025, COMvergence assessed 92 media account moves and retentions in Australia totalling around $1 billion in billings. Local reviews made up 91 per cent of the total spend which is above the global report average of 61 per cent.
At a group level, Omnicom Media Group ($156 million) edged out Publicis Groupe ($153 million) in new business, but the tables were turned when retentions are not included;, Publicis had $153 million vs OMG’s $84 million.
WPP Media came in third with $106 million in new business and retentions.
Publicis leads global charge
Globally, Publicis Media led both Total and Net New Business results, generating $9 billion in new client billings, including Coca-Cola ($1.27 billion) in North America and eight global accounts: Barilla, Dropbox, Goodyear, LinkedIn, Mars, Paramount, PayPal, and Santander. Mediabrands ranked second with $2.3 billion, driven largely by strong US performance.
OMG completed the top three, supported by global consolidated wins such as Kimberly-Clark (ex-North America), Zurich Insurance, and multiple US gains.
WPP Media was the only Big 6 groups to post a negative result, both including and excluding retentions.
At an agency network level, Initiative ranked number one globally with a total new business of $2.1 billion, supported by wins such as Paramount Network ($682 million) and Anthropic in the US.
Spark Foundry came second with the consolidated win of Abbott ($606 million) in North America and the global win of LinkedIn ($273 million).
Zenith came third, having successfully defended the PepsiCo account in China ($341M) and won PayPal ($682M) in the US. The top three positions remained unchanged in Net New Business rankings (wins minus losses).
Local reviews made up 61 per cent of the total spend ($10.7B), while global and multi-country reviews reached $6.9 billion.
The overall retention rate was just 19 per cent, the lowest level in eight years. This indicates a volatile agency market in which clients are shopping around for a better deal or different agency model, rather than working on the incumbent relationship.
Publicis Media achieved the strongest retention rate (63 per cent) at the group level. In contrast, WPP Media retained only 18 per cent of its $4.9 billion in billings under review, with a large chunk of its lost billings from the US market.
