Mumbai: COMvergence, an independent research and data consultancy specializing in analyzing media spend investments and producing benchmark studies on new business performance, billings, and market share of media agencies, has released its New Business Barometer report for India covering January to June 2025 (H1 2025), including retentions.
The report highlighted that Godrej Group, Hero Motocorp, Dabur, Mars, LinkedIn, and Suzuki Motorcycles were among the major account moves dominating the Indian market during this period.
According to COMvergence, the top-performing media agencies in India during H1 2025 were:
- EssenceMediacom with a new business value of +$217M
- Starcom with +$70M
- Havas Media with +$22M
- Mindshare and PHD, both tied at fourth with +$14M each
At the media group level, WPP Media led with a new business value of +$242M, followed by Publicis Media (+$76M) and Omnicom Media Group (+$30M).
Among the 73 moves and retentions with media spends estimated at $605M assessed by COMvergence in India for H1 2025, only 11 were global and multi-market pitches with a value of $61M, while 62 were local account moves and pitches with a combined value of $544M.
This trend places India significantly above the global average of local pitches. While globally, local pitches accounted for 61%, India registered an overwhelming 98% of total pitches being local (country-specific) in nature.
On a global scale, COMvergence assessed more than 1,840 media account moves and retentions (1,195 advertisers in total) across 49 countries, totaling $17.6B, representing a 7% increase compared to H1 2024. The U.S. accounted for 45% of the total spend reviewed globally, while China contributed 11%.
