Don’t believe everything you read: OMG and WPP tie in Comvergence rankings
Comvergence and Recma have published their annual Australian Billings and Market Share reports for 2024. At the group level, OMG has claimed wins in both rankings, but failed to mention a joint first place with WPP Media.
Comvergence and Recma are independent research companies that publish media agency rankings on a global scale. They serve to measure the performances and strategic developments of the global industry, looking at market share, billings, new business wins, and digital spend.
In a press release sent to Mumbrella earlier this week, OMG claimed it has retained the number one position in both Australian rankings.
“This marks the fifth consecutive year the holding company has taken out the top spot for RECMA, and similarly with COMvergence they have been the top billing agency since the inception of the report in 2020,” the release reads.
While the Recma win is accurate, OMG did not disclose a tie with WPP Media at the group level in Comvergence’s ranking. It is understood the billings difference between the two holdcos is so small, it falls within a statistical margin of error.
So according to Comvergence, OMG and WPP Media continue to lead the market with a joint first ranking this year as both achieved AU$2.3 billion (US$1.5 billion) in media billings. They equally sit at 29% “intra network market shares”, compared to Publicis Groupe in third with 18% share and AU$1.4 billion (US$923 million) in billings.
Comvergence’s group rankings 2024
OMG had 7% growth year-on-year, while WPP Media had 7.4%. Publicis, despite being third, had the biggest growth at 10.6%.
OMG has seen significant momentum recently, with new business wins across its agencies — OMD, PHD, Hearts & Science, and Annalect — including Reckitt, Bunnings, Kimberly Clark, Under Armour, and Spirit of Tasmania.
Meanwhile, WPP Media’s agencies — Essencemediacom, Wavemaker, and Mindshare — have welcomed Amazon, Specsavers, L’Oreal Influencer, Lion, MG Motors, HBO Max, Australian Labour Party, and Australian Retirement Trust.
It is important to note, however, that the majority listed above have not been counted in the COMvergence and RECMA reports as they had not been in effect in the full year of 2024.
Both research companies also noted that if the proposed Omnicom-IPG merger is finalised later this year, the combined 2024 media billings of OMG and Mediabrands would position the newly formed entity, to be led by Nick Garrett, well above the rest. The deal has been approved in the US, New Zealand, Australia, and more recently, the UK.
Comvergence’s agency rankings placed OMD first with an estimated AU$1.49 billion (US$965 million) in total billings, then Essencemediacom with AU$935 million (US$608 million), Wavemaker with AU$817 million (US$531 million), PHD with AU$656 million (US$426 million), and UM with AU$639 million (US$415 million).
Total media agency billings accounted for approximately 84% of Australia’s net media spend, which COMvergence estimated at AU$11.2 billion (US$7.3 billion). This is up 3.2% year-on-year. Of that, approximately AU$9.4 billion (US$6.1 billion) in billings is managed by the holdcos and leading independents.
Digital media investments have reached approximately 61% of total measured spend in 2024, accordinf to COMgervence.
Meanwhile, the total market studied by Recma for 2024 is estimated to AU$9.6 billion in “Overall Activity Volume”. The ranking reflects the sizes of the agencies but does not speak to the qualitative performance of the media agencies.
RECMA group rankings, including the proposed Omnicom-IPG merged entity
Overall, the Australian media market is estimated to have grown 5.7% in 2024 (year-on-year).
The research company placed OMG first at the group level, leading with 29.6% market share, compared to WPP Media’s 25.8%, Publicis’ 18.3%, and Mediabrands’ 14%. The remaining 12.3% is shared by Dentsu and Havas.
Broken down to the agency level, OMD led with 18.54% market share, followed by Essencemediacom with 11.29%, Wavemaker with 8.84%, UM with 7.67%, and PHD with 7.13%. These top five agencies represented 53% of the total market studied, according to RECMA.
OMD also had the best growth rate at 10% year-on-year. In comparison, the growth rate of the other agencies sat between 1-3%.
Mumbrella has approached OMG and WPP Media for comment.
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Lauren McNamara was the associate editor at Mumbrella. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS. She left Mumbrella in August 2025.
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How convenient for OMG to forget to mention the actual facts.
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