Media Agency Searches Soar In January, Interactive Declines

Activity among marketers searching for the credentials and capabilities of prospective ad agencies continued to rise during the opening month of 2004, especially for media services. Searches among marketers specifically seeking out agencies with media buying/planning expertise rose 58 percent over January 2004, making it the fastest growing area of agency search last month, according to data compiled by online advertising resource AdForum.com.

"It is surprising, given that we saw a decrease last year in searches for media buying and planning services," says Chris Wynne, managing director of AdForum.com. During 2004, searches among marketers seeking agencies with media buying and planning expertise fell 7 percent over 2003, he notes. The data was compiled from AdForum's Agency Preview service, which allows registered marketers to preview profiles, credentials and capabilities of agencies in a wide variety of full- and specialized services areas. Wynne says the number of media buying/planning searches typically averages more than 750 each month.

"Like anything else, it's open to interpretation, but there's no question that there is some leading indicator aspect to this data," explains Wynne. "It doesn't necessarily mean that accounts will go into review, but it indicates that marketers are at least thinking the capabilities of other agencies. It could be the first step in a formal review process. Based on the activity we are seeing for January, we would think that marketers are gearing up to find agencies to plan and place their media."

That uptick, interestingly, does not appear to have impacted interactive media. According to the AdForum data, searches among marketers looking for interactive agencies actually declined 3 percent in January, after falling 8 percent during calendar 2004.

However, Wynne did note that the interactive agency search findings might not be as lackluster as they appear. He says January 2005 was actually up 27 percent over the monthly average during the second half of 2004, suggesting that such searches may actually be trending upward. He says the database is still too new to know if there are season fluctuations associated with agency searches and whether January 2005 reflects a true cyclical pattern over January 2004, or whether agency searches are more volatile.

However, the downturn in interactive agency searches is especially ironic when you consider the types of advertisers that are most active in considering new agency capabilities. The greatest increase in agency search inquiries came among marketers in the tech sector, which rose 115 percent over January 2004.

The other most active categories were retail (+90 percent) and financial services (+76 percent).

Wynne characterized the spikes in these categories as "unusual," noting that these are major categories and that search activity in such categories typically goes up or down by only about 10 percent or 15 percent each month.

"These are all categories where there are a couple to a few hundred searches each month. These are big jumps," notes Wynne.

2004 Agency Search Activity, January '05


January '05 Full-Year '04
Media Buying/Planning +58% -7%
Brand & Product Development +35% +56%
Interactive -3% -8%

Overall* +17% NA

Source: AdForum's AgencyPreview.com database. Base = 83,000 2004 searches. *Searches for agencies with any stated expertise.
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