France: Global media consultancy COMvergence has released its Final 2025 Global New Business Barometer (NBB), revealing a dominant performance by Publicis Media, which secured the top position across both Total and Net New Business rankings with $10 billion in new client billings.
The figure represents nearly one-third of all media spend that shifted between agencies globally in 2025. Publicis Media’s strong performance was driven by major wins, including Coca-Cola in North America, alongside multiple global and regional accounts such as Aldi, Barilla, Campari, Dropbox, Essilor, FrieslandCampina, Goodyear, Kenvue, LinkedIn, Mars, Paramount, PayPal, Santander, Savencia, and The Magnum Ice Cream Company.
Other major holding groups trailed significantly, with Mediabrands ranking second, followed by Dentsu, Havas Media Network, and Omnicom Media Group. Their total new business gains ranged between $1.3 billion and $1.8 billion. In contrast, WPP Media emerged as the only major network to report negative performance, losing 27% ($6.9 billion) of the total media spend reviewed.
At the agency network level, Starcom secured the top spot with $2.7 billion in total new business, supported by key wins including Mars and Aldi globally, as well as the retention of Luxottica in the United States. Initiative ranked second with $2.4 billion, driven by global and U.S. wins such as Bayer, Paramount Network, and Anthropic. Spark Foundry completed the top three with $2.1 billion, buoyed by global mandates from Kenvue and Paramount.
In net new business terms, Starcom maintained its leadership position, followed by Spark Foundry and Initiative, with net gains of $1.9 billion, $1.7 billion, and $1.4 billion respectively.
The report also highlighted the growing role of bespoke standalone units, which accounted for approximately 13% of total media spend reviewed in 2025. These were led by Publicis Media with $2.6 billion and WPP Media with $1.4 billion.
Overall, COMvergence analysed more than 4,400 media account moves and retentions across 49 countries, involving 2,335 advertisers and representing a total value of $37.4 billion, reflecting a 4% decline compared to 2024. The United States accounted for the largest share at 34%, followed by the United Kingdom (10%) and China (8%).
Client retention rates dropped to 21%, marking the lowest level in eight years. Initiative led in retaining client relationships post-pitch among agency networks, while Publicis Media recorded the highest retention rate among the Big Six groups. WPP Media, however, retained only 16% of its $8.3 billion in reviewed billings.
Independent agencies also made notable gains, capturing $5 billion (13%) of total reviewed spend. Key wins included Spectrum by Horizon Media ($800 million), Peloton ($225 million), and StarzPlay ($200 million) in the United States. Additionally, Accenture Song secured its first significant media account in Australia with Optus ($45 million), while L’Oréal awarded its digital media account in Canada to Cosmos5.
