Best of the Week: How Omnicom and Publicis overtook WPP in financial performance
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Hi Tim,
Hope you are well. Very interesting to read the financials of the holding companies. I’m possibly being a pedant however I can’t agree with “They own most of Australia’s creative agencies, PR agencies and media agencies.” Most of Australia’s Media Agencies are privately owned Independent Agencies. The IMAA now has 122 members and I estimate there are 250+ Independent media agencies in Australia. Obviously it is fair to say they spend the most but they do not own the most. Regards Dominic.
Thanks for the feedback, Dominic. That’s a really interesting point. I must admit it was an assertion I made without being able to back it up, I now realise. Do you reckon it would be a fair point to make above a certain size of comms agency (of any time – media, creative, PR etc), or would that be more independent ownership too?
Cheers,
Tim
Yes, it would be fair to say they own the larger media, creative and PR agencies by staff and revenue. Last time I looked there were even more one or two person ‘creative’ companies than there are Media Agencies. For what it is worth, I believe that is where all the ‘old’ people in advertising end up if they want to stay in the business – the independent creative, media & PR agencies. It seems that around 75% of all ad spend is via the holding groups and around 25% is via Independent agencies and direct clients. That is what I hear from the media. Regards,