Dentsu Aegis Network tops Recma ranking for media billings

Dentsu Aegis Network closed 2017 with a net new business balance of $2.34 billion and three of its agencies in the global top five agency networks.

Some of the biggest accounts DAN won last year in media billings were: AB Inbev ($815 million), P&G Nordics ($270 million), GM local ($238 million), Migros ($220 million) and Shanghai VW ($243 million). The network lost business from Opel ($287 million) and Lego ($140 million).

Peter Huijboom, DAN chief executive of global clients and media brands commented: "As pitches become more fragmented, our culture and single P&L really come into their own. Dentsu Aegis is built for collaboration and has been for a long time. That’s the real story behind these impressive numbers."

Publicis Media was second with a net new business balance of $376 million, bumping Havas Media down to third with $315 million. GroupM placed fourth with a net balance of $58 million. 

The worst performing group, which Recma prefers not to disclose, lost $1.6 billion. 

Agency networks

DAN's Vizeum topped the agency network new business leagues with a net balance of $1.01 billion thanks to winning clients AB InBev and William Grant & Sons Distillers. 

"We’re a close-knit team with a start-up mentality and have been hard at work, outside of the industry spotlight, doing great work for clients," Thomas Le Thierry, Vizeum global’s president, said. "We have embraced the opportunities created through Dentsu Aegis’ acquisition of Merkle to provide data-powered media leadership."

Vizeum's sister agencies Carat and Dentsu X ranked second ($850 million) and fourth ($662 million) respectively. 

Publicis Media's Starcom ranked third overall with a new business balance of $756 million while Group M's Mediacom came in fifth with $433 million.

Recma noted that in terms of new billings alone, Mediacom topped the charts with over $2.6 billion in new clients. Unfortunately, the volume of clients lost affected their rankings in the top five. 

The worst-performing agency network lost $2.26 billion in business and only earned $702 million in new business to offset it leading to a negative balance of $1.56 billion.

Recma also included its "success index" which factors in retained clients alongside, wins and losses. 

On that table, Initiative leads the pack with a success index of 1,781. The IPG Mediabrands agency is followed by Mediacom and Starcom in second and third place respectively.