expect positive news at the agm

OMD and Mediacom have joined Mitchell & Partners in the club of media agencies with over a billion dollars worth of media billings in their arsenals, according to new RECMA figures obtained by B&T Today.

Mitchells has again emerged as Australia’s media agency heavyweight in the figures which rank media agencies by billings.

The RECMA report on overall agency billings in 2008 revealed that Mitchells led the pack with an overall total of $1.371bn, or 15.1% of the market.

However, Mitchells’ position was achieved via the agency’s diversified services, which made up 30% of its offering. If only media buying billings were counted, Mitchells would slip into second place, with $959m. OMD, which was placed second overall with $1.224bn, had the highest media buying billings, commanding $1.02bn.

Group M agency Mediacom came in third position, with overall billings of $1.116bn. Starcom Mediavest was fourth with $964m, ZenithOptimedia fifth with $776m and Universal McCann placed seventh with $720.

The top ten is completed with Carat, Mindshare, Mediaedge:cia and Initiative. Overall billings for the top 15 media agencies amounted to $9.07bn.

By agency networks, Group M leads Australian buying with $2.344bn, followed by Publicis with $1.496bn, Omnicom Media with $1.453bn, Interpublic on $1.148bn, Aegis Media with $520m and Havas 6th with $178m.

In terms of diversified services, such as digital content creation, Mindshare led the way with 34% of its business derived from sources other than standard media billings.

Carat was second with 33%, followed by ZenithOptimedia with 32% and Mitchells on 30%. OMD, despite coming second in the table, derived just 17% of its income from diversified services.

“It’s almost a businesses necessity to diversify because media agencies are under huge pressure on their trading,” said Darren Woolley, managing director of consultancy Trinity P3.

“Agencies aren’t successful in getting clients to pay for things like strategy so they have quickly learned to manage business beyond planning and buying.

“Mitchells can do that well because they aren’t aligned to any network with creative agencies. Can you imagine OMD doing that, taking work away from other Omnicom agencies? Rob Morgan (executive chairman of the Clemenger group) and Marty O’Halloran (CEO of DDB) would be hopping mad.”