• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, February 13, 2006

Media planning and buying services emerged as the fastest growing area of the agency search business, and Publicis' Starcom MediaVest unit was the most searched shop within that sector. Those are the findings drawn from the past year's worth of data from Adforum.com, a service that provides agency credentials and capabilities presentations to marketers and search consultants online.

The overall number of ad agency searches conducted in 2005 rose 10 percent over 2004, indicating that despite sizeable advertising account shifts over the past several years, and a significant amount of account consolidation, marketers are continuing to cast a net, especially for new media shops.

The number of searches conducted for media buying and planning agencies rose 15 percent over 2004, making it the fastest growing "main discipline" offered by agencies. "Full service" capabilities, up 10 percent, were the next fastest growing main discipline. Searches for most of the other main disciplines ebbed during 2005, as marketers and search consultants began focusing more on specialization and the unique market segmentation capabilities of agencies.

"We believe this is a result of many of the largest advertisers focusing more and more of their ad budgets specifically to reach those consumer groups with the fasting growing discretionary incomes, such as Hispanic Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans," said Chris Wynne, president of Adforum.com.

Wynne said the Adforum.com data shows "a great deal of account activity in the technology, financial service and healthcare sectors." Searches for agencies with technology industry expertise rose 41 percent over 2004, while financial services oriented shops rose 37 percent, followed by retail (+28 percent), luxury (+27 percent), and entertainment (+21 percent) specializations. The only specializations that were relatively flat in 2005 were political (+1 percent) and industrial (no change).

The most dynamic area of all agency searches continues to be for capabilities targeting specific consumer sectors. Searches for agencies with senior market expertise was the fastest growing, up 118 percent over 2004, followed by women +109 percent), kids/teens (+65 percent), Hispanics (+56 percent), Asian Americans (55 percent), and African Americans (+18 percent).

"Group focused marketing continues to have a major impact on how marketers allocate their ad dollars," said Wynne, noting, "We heard from many of our client agencies that they wanted to incorporate more of these specialties into their profiles versus the more traditional channel focus they have used to date."

Among media agencies, Starcom MediaVest reigned for the second year in a row as the most-searched shop. Interpublic Group's two media networks - Initiative Media and Universal McCann - placed second and third respectively in 2005 media searches, showing marked increases from the interest level marketers had in these two agencies in 2004.

Omnicom's OMD held on to fourth place, but all other major media shops declined in their relative ranking (see table below).

Media Agencies - Most Viewed Profiles
Rank
2005	2004	Agency
1	1	Starcom MediaVest
2	17	Initiative
3	9	Universal McCann
4	4	OMD
5	2	Mediaedge:cia
6	3	Carat
7	6	MindShare
8	5	Optimedia
9	7	MediaCom
10	11	Zenith Optimedia

Source: Adforum.com. The agencies are ranked based on the number of times their profiles were viewed by corporate marketers and agency search consultants that performed searches on AgencyPreview.com.