France-based global analytics firm COMvergence issued its latest billings report for Canadian agencies based on the full year for 2019.

The biggest share of media billings in Canada went to OMD, which once again topped the agency list with USD$544 million in billings (CAD$725 million). Its parent media agency group, Omnicom Media Group, was also at the top of the list, with a combined $1.05 billion (CAD$1.4 billion) across its agencies, which, in addition to OMD, include Touché!, PHD and Hearts & Science. This represents more than a quarter share of the whole industry, although the group saw US$47 million (CAD$63.7 million) less in billings than last year.

For individual agencies, Carat placed second with USD$462 million (CAN$616 million) in billings, and Cossette took third with USD$402 million (CAD$536 million). Two Mediabrands agencies, UM and Initiative, rounded out the top-five, with USD$342 million (CAD$456 million) and USD$322 million (CAD$429 million) respectively.

With the exception of UM, which saw a very small decline, all of the top-five agencies saw their billings grow in quantity from last year, with Carat seeing the biggest growth at USD$95 million. UM’s decrease was marginal, with USD$4 million (CAD$5.8 million) less in billings than 2018.

The spending power of both UM and Initiative’s clients put IPG Mediabrands in second place for top agency groups, with a combined USD$900 million (CAD$1.2 billion) in billings. GroupM placed third with USD$826 million (CAD$1.01 billion) in billings. Both Mediabrands and GroupM grew their billings over 2018.

COMvergence calculates agency billings based on clients who have spent USD$1 million or more in the year.