Research outfit Recma has named Dentsu Aegis Network as top new business performer in 2017 among the big media agency groups. According to Recma DAN has a net balance of plus $1.5bn from wins including AB InBev and Procter & Gamble Nordics.
Next is Havas Media with a positive balance (wins versus losses) of $485m with WPP’s GroupM in third place with $405m despite a number of losses. MediaCom was its best performer. One media agency group lost $1.49bn but Recma, somewhat coyly, isn’t saying which one. One of Publicis, Omnicom and Interpublic presumably.
We’ve remarked before that big media agency reviews these days tend to be swings and roundabouts with the big groups losing one and then winning one. $1.5bn isn’t that much, given the amount of media money swishing around the world, but it’s still a decent result for Dentsu Aegis.
The key thing with all these reviews isn’t necessarily who won but on what terms they won the business. Was it by cutting margins even further or, worse, promising undeliverable prices? One big media agency remarked earlier this year that a brilliant media strategy got you in the presentation room but then it was all about price.
Update
DAN has just been appointed to handle all Subways’s work in North America with Carat handling media and Mcgarrybowen creative.