Publicis Media was the leader by a wide margin among the major holding groups in new business activity for the first nine months of the year, according to an analysis by agency research firm COMvergence. 

The firm’s Global New Business Barometer (NBB) for the January-September period shows Publicis Media led both total and net new business results, generating $7.7 billion in net new client billings. Net figures factor in losses throughout the report.  

Publicis Media wins accounted for one-third of all media spend that shifted between agencies in the first nine months of 2025, per the report. Wins included Coca-Cola ($835 million) in North America and 11 global or regional pitches won: Aldi, Barilla, Campari, Friesland Campina, Dropbox, Goodyear, LinkedIn, Mars, Paramount, PayPal, and Santander.  

IPG Mediabrands--quietly absorbed and retired as a brand last week when the Omnicom-IPG merger was completed--ranked second with $2.5 billion in net new business, driven largely by a strong U.S. performance. 

Dentsu--winning several pan-European pitches, including BMW, UniCredit, and Vodafone—placed third by the thinnest of margins ($20 million) ahead of fourth-ranked Omnicom Media Group, which posted wins including Kimberly-Clark, Intersnack, and Zurich Insurance, as well as multiple U.S. gains.  

Havas was fifth ranked with net new business of nearly $1.1 billion. 

WPP Media was the only one of the Big 6 groups to lose ground, both in total and in net terms. The group surrendered $5.4 billion in media spend to other agencies, per the COMvergence review. Its net billings decline was $2.6 billion. Wins for the nine-month period totaled nearly $1.9 billion. 

At the agency network level, Initiative ranked first globally with net new business of $2.1 billion with wins including Bayer globally ($555 million), Paramount Network ($450 million) and Anthropic in the U.S.  

Zenith ranked second with net new business totaling $1.521 billion and wins including Aldi in Germany ($300 million) and PayPal globally $450 million, while also successfully defending the PepsiCo account in China ($225 million). 

Sibling agency Starcom was a very close third with net new business totaling $1.510 billion, while Spark Foundry and PHD rounded out the top 5. 

COMvergence assessed nearly 2,890 media account moves and retentions across 49 countries, involving 1,700 advertisers and totaling $26.2 billion (-10% vs. Q1-Q3 2024).  

Independent agencies (over 200 assessed in the report) captured $3.6 billion (13%) of total spend reviewed, with significant wins included Spectrum ($800 million) and Peloton ($225 million), both won by Horizon Media. 

COMvergence said the reported account move information was validated by all of the 950 agencies studied in the report.