• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, July 10, 2006

Starcom MediaVest Group has surpassed OMD globally, and MindShare has beat it domestically, according to a revised ranking of media agencies released late last week by RECMA, the Paris-based consulting firm that has become Madison Avenue's default source for media agency billings.

With a projected $25.580 billion in 2006 worldwide media billings, Publicis' Starcom MediaVest Group is the largest single media agency network on the planet, with a 7.4 percent share of the global marketplace of media planning and buying. With $24.880 billion in billings, OMD is a close second with 7.2 percent of the global market, followed by MindShare (6.9 percent), Carat (6.8 percent) and ZenithOptimedia (6.6 percent).

In the U.S., MindShare just barely nudged OMD out of first place, taking in only $10 million more in projected 2006 billings, according to RECMA.

With $11.300 billion in U.S. media billings, MindShare surpassed OMD's $11.290 billion, though both shops have essentially the same market share: 12.8 percent of RECMA's estimates for U.S. media planning and buying billings.

In the U.S., RECMA breaks Starcom out from MediaVest, and the Chicago-based media shop ranks third with billings of $9.560 billion and a 10.9 percent share of the domestic media buying marketplace. MediaVest, including buying for GM Planworks, ranks sixth with $7.265 billion and an 8.3 percent share of the U.S. market.

Publicis' ZenithOptimedia unit ranks fourth (9.8 percent share of market) and Mediaedge:cia ranks fifth (9.0 percent.

Interpublic's Universal McCann unit dropped appreciably in the ranking, falling from sixth place in 2005 to ninth place in 2006, due largely to a 17.9 percent drop in media billings year-over-year.

None other of the major U.S. media agencies experienced billings erosion in 2006, though their rates of growth ranged markedly. MediaVest, which rose 32.4 percent, thanks largely to the inclusion of GM's media buying, was the fastest growing, while Interpublic's Initiative unit rose only 1.5 percent.

RECMA continuously vets its data and readjusts its estimates, which means the rankings could change later in the year based on certain adjustments. RECMA derives its estimates via a pain-staking process of tabulating billings data for each agency's client roster through syndicated advertising tracking databases. Since big ad agencies have discontinued reporting their own data in the wake of the U.S. Sarbanes Oxley Act, RECMA has become the primary industry source for such data.