Publicis the big mover in 2022 RECMA figures, OMD still market giant
OMD has maintained its position as the dominant market leader in Australian media billings with $1.431 billion as of January 2022 in new RECMA figures seen by Mumbrella.
The Omnicom Media Group agency client portfolio grew by 10% across 2021, with its other stablemates PHD and Hearts & Science both showing growth, but Publicis Groupe was the main beneficiary of the year, with all three key media agencies experiencing strong client activity.
OMD grew across 2021, aided by its new business with the Victorian Government
Topping the growth chart was Spark Foundry, which saw its market activity increase by 76% to $422m, aided by wins for Toyota ($110m), Hello Fresh ($12m), and Johnson & Johnson ($30m).
Second on the list for overall billings sees new agency EssenceMediacom jump up the rankings after its recent coming together takes it to $839m, leapfrogging UM, which drops to third.
Essence (which across the year was represented by Ikon, AKQA Media, and Essence), shrunk by 20% across the year to $330m. Mediacom’s client billings also shrunk by 7% to $509m.
It was a steady year for UM Australia, as it brought in $30m of new business, taking it to $819m. Despite losing the Coca-Cola account in a global move to Mediacom, the agency retained the Federal Government account, Tourism Australia, and Menulog, as well as winning new business from Optus worth around $30m.
A strong and steady year for Mediabrands’ UM and Initiative
Wavemaker sits fourth, with $675m in billings, a growth of 7%, followed by PHD on $652m (up 11%), then Dentsu’s Carat at $591m, which saw L’Oreal’s $60m account out the door in a global move to Wavemaker.
Mediabrands’ Initiative was one of the market’s top performers, growing by 21%, aided by wins for Australian Unity, IAG ($54m), and AfterPay ($20m), taking it to a total of $564m.
Amongst the independents, both Nunn Media and Atomic 212 both grew by 27% in billings across 2021, taking the respective totals to $240m and $205m.
Publicis’ other two media agencies, Zenith grew by 12% to $378m, and Starcom grew by 18% to $249m. OMG’s Hearts & Science also grew by 20%, landing on $257m.
GroupM’s Mindshare contracted by 10% to $490m with IAG and Chanel departing, while retaining NAB ($60m) and Ferrero ($20m).
Havas Media had a relatively stable 2021, with 2% growth, taking it to $153m in billings.
The years saw Dentsu agencies DentsuX and iProspect both contract also, the former by 8% to $55m and the latter by 17% to $83m.
Overall, the market in Australia grew by 6%, with total client portfolio values amounting to $8,155m.
RECMA is an independent company that publishes a wide range of media agency notation reports on a global scale. It aims to provide strategic intelligence reference tools to help the top 500 global advertisers in their decision-making and agency sourcing. RECMA collects and analyses data from more than 1400 media agencies in 90 countries.
UPDATE: RECMA reached out to Mumbrella following the publication of this article to claim that the figures are not attributed to the organization.
The term “billings” in the context of this article also refers to a value stipulated in the agency’s “client portfolio”.
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Calum Jaspan was news editor at Mumbrella, based in Melbourne. He was also the producer and host of the Mumbrellacast. He left Mumbrella in May 2023.
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