—Winning Uber and BMW helped make Omnicom the most active of the "big six," with Publicis just behind—
By Jamie Rossouw
Omnicom’s success in winning some of the biggest global media reviews drove up Canada’s new-business billings in the autumn, according to the latest data from Campaign Advertising Intelligence.
Round-ups of new business in Canada using Advertising Intelligence data will now be available every two months. The latest analysis covers the period September-October 2023.
Uber was Omnicom’s biggest media win in Canada—worth $28m in billings—and was a part of a wider global review ($621.4m), of which Omnicom won other markets, including parts of South America and EMEA.
BMW was another key move for Omnicom Media Group, which was picked to handle the brief, worth $19m in Canada. Part of a wider $160.1m global review, in which Omnicom also won in South America.
Meanwhile, HSBC retained Omnicom as its global media partner ($125.9m) with the Canadian portion valued at $13.4m.
Overall, Omnicom was the most active of the “big six” global holding groups, based on media account changes.
New-business billings at the agency reached $79.6m in September-October 2023, five times higher than the $17.2m figure for the same point a year earlier.
Home Hardware was another key move; it appointed Publicis Groupe’s Spark Foundry to its $25.5m brief after parting ways with Omnicom’s PHD.
Publicis’ Starcom picked up travel package website Exoticca, worth $6m, and genealogy company Ancestry.com, worth $4.2m.
Publicis was the second most active of the big six holding companies. Its media new-business billings stood at $44m, a huge climb on the $1.4m achieved in September-October 2022.
Interpublic came in at third place with $25.8m in media billings, a 176% increase on the $9.4m posted in 2022.
General Mills, owner of Cheerios and Betty Crocker, was the biggest win for the group. UM picked up the global brief, worth $479.4m, of which Canada was valued at $19.3m.
Another scoop for UM was the Heart and Stroke Foundation, valued at $4.6m, and pet food company Blue Buffalo, worth $1.9m.
Overall, media new business in Canada skyrocketed in September-October 2023. Billings reached $174.4m—three times higher than at the same point a year earlier ($55m).
'
Campaign Advertising Intelligence tracks global new business and works with COMvergence on media wins and R3 on creative wins. COMvergence began supplying media data in May 2023; all data before this was from R3 and direct submissions. Billings from wins could appear some time after the new announcement due to the data verification process, while the figures may also be amended at a later date. Some account names were not disclosed due to client confidentiality.
