• by Joe Mandese , April 11, 2005

Online searches by marketers seeking the credentials and capabilities of prospective ad agencies soared during the first quarter of 2005, especially among media services agencies. Searches for agencies whose main discipline is media buying and planning were up 44 percent over the first quarter of 2004, making it the most searched discipline within AdForum.com's AgencyPreview.com database.

After media services, sales promotion/point of sale agencies were the most dynamic discipline, with credentials searches rising 42 percent over first quarter 2004, followed by branding/product development (+23 percent), and interactive agencies (22 percent). Searches for full-service/integrated agencies rose 17 percent, while public relations searches were down 14 percent.

"Media buying and planning agencies continue to be one of the most requested and fastest growing searches," says Chris Wynne, president-CEO of AdForum.com, an online resource for marketers that as begun supplying monthly agency search tracking data to MediaDailyNews.

Media Services, Total Agency Search Activity

January   February    Q1 2005  
Media Buying/Planning        +58%       +35%       +44%  
Interactive                   -3%       +12%       +22%  

All Agency Searches*         +17%
+22%       +17%  

Source: AdForum's AgencyPreview.com database. *Searches for agencies with any stated expertise.

Searches for agencies providing services of any kind totaled 28,417 during the first quarter of 2005, an increase of 17 percent over the first quarter of 2004. The most dynamic area of growth has been for agencies with specific target market experience. AdForum detected 2,025 such searches during the first quarter, a rise of 74 percent. Within that, retail (+85 percent) was most dynamic, followed by technologies +79 percent), financial services (59 percent), beauty/fashion/luxury (+43 percent) and healthcare (+25 percent). Industrial advertising specialty searches fell 19 percent.

"We are seeing an overall trend of advertisers looking to work with specialized agency partners. Specialization seems to be the word for account reviews and agency searches in 2005," says AdForum's Wynne, noting that target market experience also is hot, especially among agencies expert in reaching women (+91 percent), Hispanics (+89 percent), children/teens (81 percent), African Americans (+78%), and multicultural (+43 percent).

Among the major ad agencies and agency networks, the online profile of Saatchi & Saatchi New York was by far the most active during the quarter, followed by TBWA and Grey Worldwide (see data below).

First Quarter '05 Agency Profile Views

Saatchi & Saatchi New York         17,538  
TBWA/Worldwide Network
12,253  
Grey Worldwide New York            10,938  
JWT New York                        8,587  
Arnold Worldwide Boston             8,372  
JWT Global Network                  7,706

Euro RSCG Paris                     7,020  
Lowe & Partners Worldwide Network   6,090  
DDB Paris                           5,570  
Fallon WW Minneapolis               5,441

Source: AdForum's AgencyPreview.com database.