Media services now account for nearly a third of net revenues for the major agency holding companies, up from just 20% ten years earlier, according to an analysis published early this morning by Brian Wieser's Madison and Wall newsletter.
"[WPP, Publicis, Omnicom, Interpublic and Dentsu’s International business] had $54 billion in net revenue last year, of which $17 billion, or more than 30% of net revenue, was attributable to the media agencies within these holding companies," Wieser writes, "meaning GroupM, Publicis Media, OMG, Mediabrands and the media business within Dentsu International."
Citing comparable 2012 estimates that media services accounted for 20% of the holding companies' net revenue, Wieser estimates "media agencies were responsible for nearly two-thirds of large agency group growth over the past decade."
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When I was at BBDO I proposed that we sell our media services to non full service clients as a new profit center but was met with the reply, " If you have people who are not fully employed in work for our current clients why not fire them instead and save us some money?" Sadly this was the attitude of smart people who were totally focused on the old full service, " creative" and account handling model who saw "media" as a burdensome expense they had to tolerate. How the worm has turned.