Mindshare was the top global media agency for winning business pitches for the half year to June, according to the latest New Business Barometer published by COMvergence.
The GroupM agency wrote $US1.1 billion (including $US741 million in retentions) between January and June 2020.
This was largely due to strong performances in China and North America.
GroupM’s MediaCom and Wavemaker ranked second and third by scoring a combined total new business value of $US831 million.
The top three results pushed GroupM, owned by WPP, into the top spot among the global media agency groups with almost $US3 billion ahead of its closest pursuer, Publicis Media.
Havas Media was in third place.
WPP’s media agency group showed positive overall results in most markets, with a retention rate of 73%.
The group performed particularly strongly in China with $US2 billion of new client wins and retentions and North America with $US700 million.
COMvergence assessed 1,440 media account moves and retentions across 45 countries totalling $US10.4 billion, about $US1 billion lower than for the same six months in 2019.
China dominated the media pitch activity in terms of spend volume ($US3 billion).
The US followed with $US2.6 billion.
Global media agency groups:
The average retention rate is 31% globally compared to 24% in the first half of 2019.
Of the total media spend reviewed, less than $US1 billion or 8% went to independents or non international network agencies.
This includes Horizon Media ($US210 million) in the US; Madison Media ($US128 million) in India; Pilot ($US111 millionM) and MEDIA Central ($US80 million) in Germany, and Heroiks Media Groupe ($US52 million) in France.
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