OMD maintained its position as the top ranked media agency network worldwide in 2022, according to the latest analysis by independent research company COMvergence.
Total 2022 billings for OMD are estimated at $US22.5 billion, a growth rate of 1.6%, in COMvergence's annual global billings rankings and market shares (BMS) report based on final 2022 agency and group billings, including digital media spend.
GroupM’s Mindshare was second with $22 billion (-1.2%) and MediaCom was third with a total billings of $20 billion (+20.7%).
The merger of Essence and MediaCom, effective January 2023 under the name EssenceMediacom, will be reflected in the 2023 edition of COMvergence’s BMS report.
This is expected to change the rankings. Based on the 2022 billings figures, Olivier Gauthier, COMvergence founder and CEO, sees EssenceMediacom becoming the leading media agency network in 2023.
At the group level, GroupM remains a strong global leader with 15.9% industry market share and $63.9 billion in global billings (up by +7.2% versus. 2021).
Publicis Media follows with $45.7 billion (up +8.5%). Omnicom Media Group rounds out the top three with $38.3 billion (up +8.2%).
In March 2022, the big six media agency networks/groups withdrew from Russia and ceded ownership of their agencies to local management teams.
To provide the most objective gauge of the momentum the agency groups had last year (i.e., growth from new business activities and organic increases from existing client spends), COMvergence restated the global 2021 figures by excluding billings from Russia.
The 2022 total agency billings represent about 60% of the global (net) media spends which COMvergence estimates to be $401 billion [up +6.4%] across 46 markets, versus $377 billion in 2021.
The remaining 40% is handled by smaller independent media and digital agencies, Chinese, Japanese, and South Korean local advertising agencies, and in-house advertiser teams (particularly in the digital/programmatic area).
The global billings managed by media agency networks owned by the big six holding companies plus major independent media agencies reached $253 billion in 2022.
Combined they represent 96% of the global media investments studied by COMvergence and experienced an overall growth of +8% vs. 2021.
COMvergence estimates that digital reached 48% share of global spend in 2022 at $121 billion (per the digital spends handled by the big six and major independents).
This is up from 43% in 2021 and 39% in 2020. Among the media agency networks, this ratio varies from 39% for Initiative to 63% for Essence.
Differences are less significant at the group level, where the digital share ranges from 44% for Havas Media Network to 51% for OMG.
Among the big six groups, digital media expenditures grew +16% year-on-year to reach $102.3B. Meanwhile, offline media spending fell -1% to $110.9 billion.
The present BMS study spans 107 independent local media agencies which represents a total 2022 billings figure of $25.5 billion (or about 11% of the total billings measured by COMvergence globally).
Horizon Media (US) is by far the largest independent worldwide with a total 2022 billings figure of $7.7 billion. Horizon represents nearly one-third of the independent total billings. Local Planet is comprised of independent media agencies including Horizon Media (US), Plus Company (Canada), Pilot (Germany), Media Italia (Italy), Zertem Group (Spain), among others. Local Planet shows a total billing 2022 of $11.6 billings, while Mediaplus, with 16 locally owned agencies studied globally, generated a total billing of $2.3 billion.
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