IPG's Initiative Top Media Agency In Global New Business Through Q3

Interpublic media agency Initiative is the top new business winner based on estimated billings for the first nine months of the year according to an analysis by agency research firm COMvergence. The figures are net (deducting lost accounts) and include retained business.

Initiative prevailed in pitches with an estimated $1.35 billion in billings. The agency successfully defended two big accounts--Liberty Mutual in the US ($492 million), and Merck globally ($295 million).

Mindshare ranked second with net wins pegged at $1.29 billion. Retentions also played a part in the GroupM shop’s success and included Master Kong ($350 million) and Dyson ($125 million) in China as well as Ferrero in the U.S. ($238 million).

And GroupM’s Wavemaker ranked third with net new business value of $1.15 billion including a big assignment from Audible ($530 million).

Omnicom’s PHD was a close fourth with a net tally of $1.11 billion and rounding out the top-5 was sibling agency OMD with $989 million.

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At the group level WPP’s GroupM ranked first ($3.1 billion), followed by Publicis Media ($2.6 billion) and Omnicom Media Group ($2.5 billion).

The assessment covered 2,800 media account moves worldwide during the nine-month period with an estimated billings total of $22 billion. That was 10% less than the billings in play for the first nine months of 2021. The U.S. accounted for about 33% of the reviewed expenditures. About 63% of the total is tied to local pitches (up from 56% in the year-ago period).

COMvergence CEO Olivier Gauthier noted that another $6 billion worth of expenditures are currently being reviewed. Those assessments should be completed by year’s end, he added.

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