• by Joe Mandese , June 10, 2005

After a banner year of media account reviews like 2004, Madison Avenue might have expected interest in media-related account searches to ebb, but more marketers appear to be reconsidering their media services so far this year than during the same period in 2004.

Through the first five months of 2005, there have been 2,095 searches by marketers looking for agencies with media credentials on AdForum.com's agency search database, a 48 percent increase over such activity during the same period in 2004.

In fact, media agency searches appear to be building. During May, there were 410 searches by marketers looking specifically for agencies with media buying and planning expertise, a 58 percent increase over May 2004.

Interestingly, media services were not the most active agency search category last month. While media searches have outpaced most categories so far in 2005, full-service agency credentials searches (+69 percent) and interactive agency searches (+59 percent) had higher growth rates in May. In fact, the most active agency search categories were for marketing research services (+144 percent) and sales promotion/point-of-purchase (+102 percent) over May 2004.

The only category to wane in May was searches for direct response/database marketing/CRM shops, which dipped 15 percent.

Ad Agency Searches: May, Year-To-Date 2005

	May '05	Change	YTD '05	Change
Full Service/Integrated	3,524	68.8%	21,659	30.2%
Interactive	367	58.9%	1,908	26.5%
Media Buying/Planning	410	57.8%	2,095	48.2%
Total	6,338	54.9%	37,615	25.9%

Source: Adforum.com