Through the first five months of 2005, there have been 2,095 searches by marketers looking for agencies with media credentials on AdForum.com's agency search database, a 48 percent increase over such activity during the same period in 2004.
In fact, media agency searches appear to be building. During May, there were 410 searches by marketers looking specifically for agencies with media buying and planning expertise, a 58 percent increase over May 2004.
Interestingly, media services were not the most active agency search category last month. While media searches have outpaced most categories so far in 2005, full-service agency credentials searches (+69 percent) and interactive agency searches (+59 percent) had higher growth rates in May. In fact, the most active agency search categories were for marketing research services (+144 percent) and sales promotion/point-of-purchase (+102 percent) over May 2004.
advertisement
advertisement
The only category to wane in May was searches for direct response/database marketing/CRM shops, which dipped 15 percent.
Ad Agency Searches: May, Year-To-Date 2005
| May '05 | Change | YTD '05 | Change |
Full Service/Integrated | 3,524 | 68.8% | 21,659 | 30.2% |
Interactive | 367 | 58.9% | 1,908 | 26.5% |
Media Buying/Planning | 410 | 57.8% | 2,095 | 48.2% |
Total | 6,338 | 54.9% | 37,615 | 25.9% |
Source: Adforum.com