Mumbai : Mindshare has emerged as the country’s top media agency, ending group firm Maxus’ four-year supremacy at the top of the qualitative ranking list of RECMA, or Research Company Evaluating Media Agencies.
The Paris-based research agency on Monday named Mindshare, Madison and Maxus as the top three media agencies in India in its latest qualitative rankings list among which Mindshare emerges as the top media agency in India .
While RECMA, the only independent company that publishes media agency rankings on a global scale, reviews the qualitative ranking once every quarter, it also releases a quantitative ranking list annually based on the agency billings.
Michele Le Bris, APAC regional director for RECMA, declined to share the list of the top 10 Indian media agencies based on the study. Industry sources said the other agencies that have made it to the top 10 are Carat, Havas, MediaCom, MEC, Lodestar UM, Motivator and DDB Mudra Max. That means all media agencies under GroupM, MindShare, Mediacom, MEC and Maxus — are in the top 10 list.
The RECMA qualitative study is based on four parameters such as competitiveness (number of pitches attended in three years), momentum (activities and changes in the top management), resources (number of employees and variety of talent) and client profile (also the market share of the top three clients of the agency).
“I am satisfied with the recognition on structure and vitality,” We continuously re-engineer our teams in line with the changing demands from our clients as well as the media and marketing landscape. Our suite of services now reflect a full-fledged marketing communications company.” said Gowthaman Ragothaman, chief operating officer at Mindshare Asia Pacific.
However, certain media agencies pointed out that this ranking does not reflect the health of an agency.
“RECMA is important because it is the only independent media agency ranking of sorts. But if my agency is not changing the top management or if we decide to stabilise existing client relations rather than randomly pitching for new businesses then my agency does not get any point on parameters like competitiveness and momentum,” said atop media agency official.
Some media agency heads said RECMA’s quantitative report is more vital as it is based on agency billings and, therefore, reflects the financial health of the company.
Speaking on the achievement Prasanth Kumar, CEO, Mindshare South Asia, said, “This is a win for each and every member of the Mindshare team. Mindshare has always been the leader in innovation, and we believe it is extremely vital for us to prepare ourselves and our clients for a relevant tomorrow. With our Adaptive Marketing philosophy, we have ensured our clients have the competitive advantage, and their communication is superlative. We are grateful for their belief in us, to deliver on our common goals of brand building. We are proud of the fact that our clients continue to work with us on initiatives that are continuously pushing the boundaries of media investment and communication, as we successfully redefine the media industry in India.”
According to the 2014 RECMA quantitative ranking, which is also called Client Portfolio Value, the top 3 Indian media agencies are Mindshare, with total billings of $940 mn, or Rs 5,960 crore, Madison with $680 mn (Rs 4,310 crore), and Maxus with $533 mn (about Rs 3,380 crore).
Earlier, MediaCom has been recognised as the world’s leading media agency by RECMA, MediaCom’s top position is underpinned by its recent new business success across a number of networked clients, with marquee client wins including Mars worldwide planning, The Coca-Cola Company assignment in Mexico and the AB Inbev account in the US. Momentum in the US, the largest market for all players in the industry, has resulted in MediaCom being named 2015 US Media Agency of the Year.
