Wavemaker tops COMvergence new business rankings

Zenith and Initiative also leads in new business wins by media agencies around the world.
By Patti Summerfield
September 22, 2023

Wavemaker landed at the top of COMvergence’s Global New Business Barometer as the media agency with the most new business, a total value of $1.2 billion.

The agency’s results also included $818 million in retentions from clients including Huawei China ($315 million) and Adobe U.S. ($140 million). All results were tracked between January and June 2023 and are in U.S. dollars.

Zenith ranked second with a total new business value of $581 million, including its multi-market win of Adobe ($150 million) and the retention of L’Oréal in Iberia ($130 million). Initiative held the third position with a total of $555 million, thanks to winning Constellation Brands in the U.S. ($534 million).

OMG media networks, Hearts & Science and OMD followed close behind the top three.

In terms of net new business – excluding retentions – the top three agency networks are ranked differently. Initiative showed the highest incremental billings with $538 million, followed by Hearts & Science at $510 million and Wavemaker with $392 million.

At the network level, Publicis Media ranked first with a total new business value of $3.3 billion due to the global win of Pfizer ($1.5 billion), LVMH in North America ($360 million), and Signet Jewelers and Walgreens in the U.S. ($475 million).

Mediabrands came in second place with a net billings gain of $1.7 billion. GroupM ranked third with the largest total retained billings ($1.1 billion). OMG, Havas Media Network and Dentsu round out the top six.

Between January and June 2023, COMvergence assessed 1,771 media account moves and retentions (1,200 advertisers in total) across 46 countries totaling $14.4 billion (up 10% compared to 2022). The U.S. accounts for 45% of the total spend reviewed globally.

Local pitches continue to represent a major part of the total reviewed spend, amounting to $9.5 billion (66% of the total), while the average retention rate dropped to 21% (versus 27% in 2022), the lowest rate since 2016. Global and multi-country reviews concluded in the first half of 2023 resulted in a total of $4.9 billion.