Starcom Is First Half's Global Pitch King

Publicis Groupe’s Starcom is the top global media agency in net new business activity for the first half of 2021 according to a new analysis from agency research firm COMvergence. The net new business figures cited below are billings numbers and include retentions and also factor in business that was lost. 

During the first half of the year COMvergence assessed 1,940 media account moves and retentions across 46 countries totaling $13.2 billion, an increase of 27% over the same period in 2020, when review activity was suppressed by the pandemic. The US accounted for 38% of the total spending assessed.   

For the period Starcom won $2.2 billion in net new business. That includes $1.2 billion in retained business where the agency was an incumbent in reviews.  The agency’s biggest win was auto giant Stellantis--formed earlier this year with the merger between the Italian-American Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the French PSA Group. 

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Stellantis consolidated its estimated $2 billion media account with Publicis Groupe in April. Starcom was one of the incumbents. 

Initiative ranked second with net new business of $1.4 billion, including the T-Mobile win in the US with estimated billings of $1.2 billion. 

Zenith and OMD tied for third place, each with $872 million in new business billings. 

Mindshare rounded out the top-5 with nearly $500 million in net new business. 

By holding company group, Publicis Media landed the top spot with $3 billion in new business in large part due to the Stellantis consolidation pitch.  But it also notched several other big wins including Nomad Foods and Lindt in Europe and the $500 million Inspire Brands account in the US. 

IPG’s Mediabrands ranked second with nearly $1.5 billion in new business. In addition to T-Mobile, wins included Cigna and Enterprise. 

Omnicom Media Group ranked third with over $720 million in new business. Wins included Philips ($150 million), Home Depot ($330 million) and Yili ($120 million) in China. 

Havas Media ($480 million) and GroupM ($255 million) rounded out the top-5 ranked groups.

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