Mindshare, GroupM net total billings reach billions in H1 2020

Advertising networks reaching revenue targets has always been a hard nut to crack. For international agencies, the scale of the competition is also of global proportions. Since the COVID-19 invasion, the race to raise revenues is now transformed into a marathon for survival. Amid this brutal ‘existential crisis’ for the world market, Mindshare, and GroupM have pulled it off.

According to a COMvergence report, Mindshare has become the top global media agency network. The report, New Business Barometer for H1 2020, states that in business results the agency has generated net total billings of $1.1 billion. The agency achieved this feat partly because it successfully defended accounts worth $741 million in formal reviews.

According to the ranking issued by COMvergence, the GroupM network has dominated the Global Media-Pitch Competition in the first half of 2020. Both GroupM and Mindshare are owned by WPP Group, a multinational advertising, communication, and public relations company.

Mindshare owes its success to China where it earned the PepsiCo business. Pepsi is one of the most important soft drink brands in China with a market share of around 32% according to the last year’s data. Getting the PepsiCo account in China will mean a lot to Mindshare for its revenue stream in the Asia-Pacific region. China, though the first country to face Coronavirus, delt exceedingly well with the pandemic. The total number of cases in China is less than the total number of deaths in the USA.

After Mindshare in the agency category, Wavemaker and MediaCom came second while Zenith occupied the third spot on the victory stand with net total billings of $831 million and $468 million respectively. In the groups’ category, GroupM claimed the top spot with $3.7 billion, Publicis Media second with $675 million, and Havas Media settled for the third spot. According to COMvergence data, the media pitch activity was slower due to the COVID emergency that has affected all business activities around the world. Market activity despite the COVID hurdles is picking up the pace slowly but surely. MindShare and GroupM performing well in the first half of 2020 is a good indicator for WPP and its CEO Mark Reed who attributed the underperformance of WPP subsidiaries to COVID hit markets, clients, and plummeting spending levels.