Third year in a row, GroupM India, WPP’s media investment group, has emerged as the leading media agency group in the industry for new business wins and retention, according to COMvergence survey latest New Business Barometer for FY 2023 for India.
GroupM led the media agency groups by a wide margin with a total new business value of +$654 million, followed by IPG Mediabrands at +$200 million and Omnicom Media Group at +$128 million in new business value (new and retained).
Wavemaker, Mindshare and Lodestar UM led the media agencies’ ranking followed by EssenceMediacom and Havas Media.
Maruti, Reckitt, PhonePe, Proctor & Gamble (digital), Swiggy, Pernod Ricard,Vivo Mobiles, Beiersdorf, Ferrero, Berger Paints and Jaguar Land Rover were among some of the account moves and retentions that dominated the Indian market from January 2023 to December 2023.
COMvergence, assessed an overall of 215 account moves and retentions in 2023, with media spends estimated to be around $1.5 billion. Out of these, local pitches dominated the Indian market, whilst 55% of the total pitches held globally were local in nature (country specific pitches), making India well above this average with 91% of total pitches being local whereas global and multi- country pitches made up only 9% of the pie for India.
2023 saw a whole of 192 local pitches estimated to be around $1,399 million and 23 global and multi market pitches were estimated to be around $132 million in India.
"In 2023 the FMCG category led New Business with the likes of Reckitt, Proctor and Gamble (digital), Beiersdorf, Ferrero, Perfetti, Grasim Paints, Berger Paints, very closely followed by the Automotive category dominated by the Maruti pitch, followed by Fintech with PhonePe," said Priyanka Mehra, regional director South Asia & India COMvergence.
"What we have also seen in the last 3 years in India in new business has been an increase in the brands from smaller cities spending monies on digital. Infact brands from smaller cities are launching themselves on digital first, albeit the spends are smaller but the number of brands are steadily increasing," she added.
COMvergence is an independent research and data consultancy, which analyses media spend investments and produces benchmark studies on new business performances.