Omnicom’s OMD maintained its status as the industry’s biggest media agency in 2023, but GroupM’s Wavemaker, followed by Publicis’ Zenith and Spark Foundry, were the fastest growing of the major holdco agencies, B&T can reveal.
Last year, OMD recorded total billings of $1.291 billion and controlled 12.6 per cent of the market, according to COMvergence’s latest Billings Rankings & Market Share report. That was a drop of 0.8 per cent year-on-year.
Meanwhile, GroupMs EssenceMediacom controlled 8.6 per cent of the market, recording $882 million in billings. However, the agency, born of a merger between Essence and MediaCom that was formalised on 31 January last year, saw a total year-on-year drop in growth of 12.2 per cent. Nearly two-thirds of EssenceMediacom’s billings were digital, the highest of any large media agency.
Meanwhile, Wavemaker, currently B&T’s Media Agency of the Year, recorded $748 million in billings — up 20.6 per cent year-on-year. Late entries for this year’s B&T Awards close in less than a week.
PHD took fourth place, recording a 6.8 per cent lift in billings to $605 million.
IPG Mediabrands’ UM and Initiative came fifth and sixth, respectively, in the rankings. UM saw a small 0.7 per cent drop in billings to $597 million. Initiative, meanwhile, recorded a 4.6 per cent drop in billings, bringing home $452 million. How the team fare in 2024 after losing its top trio to Accenture Song, remains to be seen.
Dentsu’s Carat placed seventh, growing 1.8 per cent to record $445 million in billings.
Publicis’ Zenith and Spark Foundry, placed eighth and ninth, recording $425 million and $422 million in billings. However, Spark grew by a quarter in 2023 compared to 2022 and Zenith grew by a third — the fastest of any major media agencies.
Atomic 212° was the largest indie, placing 11th overall, recording $242 million in billings, up 16.7 per cent year-on-year.
Nunn Media, meanwhile, placed 13th with $170 million in billings, growing 6.9 per cent. Havas Media was 15th, recording $101 million in billings, down 16.7 per cent.
Earlier this week, OMG, having grown 0.6 per cent year-on-year, declared that it had placed top of the COMvergence group rankings. However, GroupM, despite seeing a 0.1 per cent decline in billings, remains hot on its heels, with just $30 million in total billings splitting the two agency groups.
Publicis Media, meanwhile, has overtaken IPG’s Mediabrands into third. Mediabrands saw a small 1.5 per cent drop in overall billings year-on-year but Zenith and Spark’s remarkable growth saw Publicis add more than $200 million to its accounts over the course of the year.
Dentsu’s growth was pretty much flat at -0.6 per cent, seeing the group bring home $530 million.
However, there is yet more to be unpacked.
Whilst OMG leads the way in market share, controlling 20.1 per cent of the industry, it is heavily reliant on OMD, which controls 12.6 per cent of the market – its nearest stablemate, PHD has less than half of its billings.
GroupM, meanwhile, controls 19.8 per cent of the market, but has its billings are spread more evenly between EssenceMediacom (8.6 per cent), Wavemaker (7.3 per cent) and Mindshare (3.7 per cent).
Globally, GroupM is the top media agency group racking up $US62.6 billion in billings, with Publicis and OMG following second and third, with $US48.5 billion and $40.5 billion in billings, respectively.
At an agency level, EssenceMediacom placed first, with OMD and Mindshare second and third.
