Amazon and eBay cause tremors in global new-business league

Amazon and eBay both shook up the market with international account moves in the month of September, while PHD yet again maintained its lead in Campaign Red’s global new-business league. 

Amazon split its media account between two networks, after what is believed to be one of the biggest pitches the industry has ever encountered – an estimated $2.4bn of its total global media spend of $5bn was up for grabs. 

Omnicom Media Group (OMG)* will handle Amazon’s media account in the Americas ($1.17bn), while WPP’s Group M* will handle media duties across EMEA and APAC ($1.23bn). 

This led to OMG* moving up nine places in the league to second place, and Group M entering the rankings for the first time. 

Fellow e-commerce platform eBay also concluded its media review in September, awarding its global $366.6 million account to Dentsu’s iProspect, following a competitive review. The agency will help with eBay’s digital transformation. This win boosted iProspect up four positions into 14th position. 

A spokesperson for iProspect said: "Our shared vision for accelerating growth and optimising performance across the media funnel through innovation, data and technology was clear throughout the entire process.”

Other significant wins came by Dentsu’s Carat, who secured the media planning and buying account for Pernod Ricard China (worth $45 million), expanding its existing relationship with the global spirits giant. 

The win follows a competitive pitch, and Carat displaces Group M’s Wavemaker, which had held the account since 2019. 

Campaign Red has produced the global media rankings, using direct findings from COMvergence, to calculate the overall media billings sum of each agency, taking into account both wins and losses for the period. As it stands, the formula is: (wins + retentions) – losses.

October refers to the publishing month of the rankings by Campaign. The data covers all 2024 account wins reported by COMvergence as of 1 October 2024. Next month’s rankings (November) will include accounts reported after this date. Reported figures may be revised in the future as more information becomes available. Campaign Red is not including the European Sky account in the global rankings until the billings have been confirmed.

*The rankings have a focus on agencies, however, wins may be reported at a divisional level only or at a bespoke team level. For now, Campaign is keeping divisions and bespoke teams in the rankings as separate entities for those wins. This is to provide the most complete picture of new-business activity, in line with COMvergence reporting.