• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, May 2, 2006

The big got bigger during 2005, but for all the talk of media buying consolidation, the world's largest media buying organizations still account for only a fraction of U.S. and worldwide ad spending, according to final figures from RECMA. The top 10 media buying agencies placed $170.8 billion in worldwide media buys during 2005, which is only 30.0 percent of the $569.8 billion Universal McCann forecaster Bob Coen estimates was actually spent on media last year. The Top 10's share is actually up a smidgen from 29.3 percent of the $543.6 billion advertisers spent on media in 2004, showing that consolidation is indeed afoot, but that Madison Avenue has a long way to go before it dominates the world of media.

Interestingly, the biggest media shops control an even smaller share of U.S. media buys, indicating that domestic ad spending is far more diffuse than the worldwide media marketplace. In 2005, the top 10 U.S. media buying shops accounted for only 26.8 percent share of the $276.0 billion in U.S. advertising Universal McCann estimates for 2005. That's up from a 26.3 percent share in 2004.

MediaDailyNews's analysis is derived from RECMA figures published in this week's edition of Advertising Age and from Universal McCann figures released last December. RECMA has become the default source for agency media billings in the aftermath of the Sarbanes-Oxley act, which requires publicly traded companies to be accountable to shareholders for any financial metrics they release publicly, including agency billings.

According to RECMA, OMD was the world's and the U.S.'s largest media buyer, but nonetheless accounts for only a fraction of total media spending. On a global basis, OMD placed an estimated $23.1 billion in 2005, or only 4.1 percent of the global media marketplace. That was up slightly from 4.0 percent in 2004. In the U.S., OMD placed 10.4 billion, or a 3.8 percent share of 2005 media buys. That's the same U.S. media buying share for OMD as 2004.