OMD, Omnicom top COMvergence rankings

Billings covered in the final 2021 report were up 22% Canada-wide from the previous year.

COMvergence has completed its final report of media billings for 2021, finding that OMD and its parent group Omnicom Media Group led Canadian agencies last year.

OMD had $759 million in billings, coming from 46 clients. That’s up 13.9% from the previous year, and represents 10.3% share of the market. Among OMD’s billings, 50% came from digital work.

Cossette Media was in second with $713 million in billings, up 13% from the previous year and representing 9.7% market share. Digital made up 47% of the agency’s billings.

While Carat was in third with $625 million from 24 clients, it had the fastest growth among top agencies at 34.7%. Digital accounted for 60% of Carat’s billings.

Rounding out the list was UM Canada at $462 million in billings (up 25.2% from the previous year) and Starcom at $412 million (up 20.5%).

COMvergence’s methodology covers clients who spend is over $1 million, covering the country’s top 1,500 advertisers. That resulted in 24 agencies being included in this year’s report, 20 of which are part of a major agency network. Altogether, they represent 84% of all media spending in Canada.

Canada-wide, the agencies covered in COMvergence’s report brought in $5.4 billion in billings, up 22% from 2020. Digital accounted for 55% of that total.

Omnicom Media Group led agency groups with $1.44 billion in billings, up 16.1% from the prior year and representing 19.6% of the market share. IPG Mediabrands had $1.19 billion (up 23.3%, representing 16.1% market share) and GroupM had $1.09 billion (up 23.1%, 14.8% market share).