• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, July 14, 2017

Among media agencies in the global and regional pitch department, MediaCom, part of WPP’s GroupM, is off to the best start this year, according marketing and communications research firm COMvergence. 

Through the first half of 2017 the firm won $1.2 billion in net new business, which was driven by its victory in the $800 million PSA Group (Peugeot-Citroen) review and the $600 Walgreens Boots Alliance review, both global in scope.

The agency also retained a sizable piece of regional Procter & Gamble business in Europe (Germany), while losing some business from the same client in the UK and Scandinavia. 

Three Publicis Media shops rounded out the top-four performances in the first half, including Connect Powered By Publicis Media, which won the $465 million Molson Coors review. Spark Foundry (formerly MediaVest Spark) followed with net new business of $145 million, while sibling Starcom posted $110 million in net wins per the COMvergence tally. 

The report identified 16 major global and regional pitches that were completed during the first half of the year. In 12 of the reviews, the client changed agencies, while the average pitch lasted four months. 

The research firm stressed this first-half report does not include single-country competition and thus, excludes some big U.S.-only pitches, including KFC and Mattel (won by Spark Foundry), Lowe’s (Starcom), Sprint (Horizon) and TJX (Mindshare). 

Those wins will be factored into a comprehensive review of all pitches (global, regional and local) for the first half that COMvergence is scheduled to release in September.