• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, July 12, 2011

U.S. media shops added a little over $11 billion to their billings coffers in 2010 -- up 12%, according to a new report from agency research firm RECMA. And most of it -- just over $10 billion -- went to the major holding company agencies and independent Horizon Media. According to the report, the top-15 media shops collected an 86.4% share of the market, versus 86.2 percent in recessionary 2009.

Year-to-year, Omnicom's OMD retained the top ranking in billings among individual U.S. agencies, collecting nearly $9.7 billion -- up 12% from 2009, according to the Paris-based researcher. The agency had a 9.1% share of the market (versus 9.2% the previous year) and widened its lead over the number-two agency by a tenth of a point.

Zenith Media, a unit of Publicis Groupe's VivaKi, climbed to the No. 2 position, also up 12% to $9.3 billion. Sister agency Starcom fell into a third-place tie with GroupM's Mindshare -- which both posted billings of just under $9.1 billion, with Mindshare up 12% and Starcom up 6%, per the RECMA data. Starcom was second-ranked in 2009.

Rounding out the top-five shops was GroupM's MEC (slipping from a tie for third the previous year) with billings of nearly $8.3 billion, up 3%.

Among the major holding companies, Publicis Groupe retained the largest chunk of U.S. billings spread across Starcom, MediaVest, Zenith and Optimedia, with a total of $28.7 billion. GroupM retained the No. 2 position with $24.5 billion, spread across Mindshare, MEC, MediaCom and Maxus.

Interpublic climbed into the third spot with $13.7 billion, largely on the strength of Universal McCann's performance last year. UM was the biggest gainer, soaring 40% to nearly $7.8 billion, and was the only shop to boost its market share more than a full percentage point -- from 6.2% to 7.4%, RECMA reported. UM also had the biggest staff increase, adding 250 employees for a total of 1,021 to service big new accounts like Chrysler and MasterCard.

UM sister shop Initiative maintained its 10th-place ranking with a 14 percent gain in billings to almost $5.9 billion.

Omnicom Media Group slipped to fourth among holding companies with a total of $12.96 billion. OMD sister shop PHD contributed almost $3.3 billion -- up 4%, maintaining its 11th-place rank among agencies.

And MediaVest retained its 6th-place agency rank, up 16% in billings to $7.9 billion.

Aegis Group's Carat climbed a notch in the rankings to 8th place with $6.5 billion, up 22% -- the second-largest gain by percentage growth. RECMA reported that exactly one-half of Carat's 2010 billings were attributed to digital and diversified services, the highest percentage of any media shop. (By that measure, MediaCom and Initiative were tied for second with 28%, while MEC was fourth at 27% and UM fifth with 23%.)

MediaCom, which had a rough 2010, capped by the departure of drug marketer GlaxoSmithKline in December, still managed to achieve a slight billings gain -- 2% according to RECMA -- for a total of $6.4 billion. Year-to-year, the shop fell from seventh to ninth among U.S. agencies.

Havas' MPG also had a tough 2010, as it was buffeted by account losses and U.S. management turmoil. It was the only top-15 agency to show a decline in overall billings, down 3% to roughly $2.7 billion. MPG was 12th-ranked, as it was the prior year.

Thirteenth-ranked Optimedia was credited with $2.4 billion, up 21%; 14th-ranked Horizon with nearly $2.3 billion, up 20 percent, and 15th-ranked Maxus with $760 million, up 12 percent.

RECMA said that outside of the top-15 media shops, unnamed "other U.S. independents" were credited with a collective total of $14.5 billion, accounting for the remaining 13.6 percent of industry billings.