• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, July 30, 2013

Despite all the talk about how shaky the global economy is and how nervous ad clients are, hot-off-the- presses numbers from billings tracker RECMA show that worldwide the holding companies (and a few major independents) had a pretty good year in 2012--billings rose 9.3% to nearly $341 billion.

WPP’s GroupM, the reigning holding company champ, grew its billings by nearly 10% to $95.7 billion in 2012. GroupM shops include Mindshare, MEC, MediaCom and Maxus.

Publicis Media—including agencies Starcom, MediaVest, Spark, Zenith and Optimedia—ranked second by holding company, gaining nearly 11% for a worldwide total of $72 billion. Merger partner Omnicom Media Group (OMD and PHD) was third, posting a gain of slightly more than 10% to about $49.4 billion.

If the proposed merger is completed Publicis Omnicom Group would be the new number one with billings of more than $121 billion. WPP could claw its way back to the top with the purchase of Interpublic Group (UM, Initiative, BPN), fifth-ranked in 2012 with $32.8 billion, up about 5%.  A combined WPP-IPG entity would have more than $128 billion in combined billings.

Dentsu, which bought Aegis Group (Carat, Vizeum) earlier this year, was the fourth-ranked holding company with nearly $39 billion, up close to 13%. Havas Media was sixth-ranked with $17.8 billion, up 9%.

In the U.S., by agency, RECMA reported that OMD was the top biller with just over $13 billion, up 18%.

And the rest:

2)      Starcom--$11.1 billion, up 8%

3)      Zenith Media--$10.1 billion, up 5%

4)      MediaVest--$9.6 billion, up 16%

5)      Mindshare--$9.3 billion, up 8%

6)      MEC--$8.5 billion, up 5%

7)      UM--$8.3 billion, flat

8)      Carat--$8.2 billion, up 40%

9)      MediaCom--$6.3 billion, up 5%

10)   Initiative--$6 billion, up 5%

11)   PHD--$4.7 billion, up 8%

12)   Horizon Media--$3.9 billion, up 15%

13)   Optimedia--$3.7 billion, up 27%

14)   Havas Media--$3.2 billion, up 11%

15)   Maxus--$2.9 billion, up 30%

16)   Spark--$822 million, up 37%

17)   BPN--$300 million

18)   Vizeum--$100 million