Advertising Age reported on new business pitches won by holding companies in 2025, with Publicis Groupe, WPP, and Omnicom (pre-IPG acquisition) taking the top 3 positions, respectively.
The leaderboard displayed: Publicis sucked up 1,458 wins; WPP nabbed 672 wins; Omnicom collected 656 wins.
How did the wins ignite layoffs, especially for losing White advertising agencies?
Also, how did the White holding companies rank in Prime Redlining, screwing non-White advertising agencies during account reviews?
Publicis won twice as many new business pitches as WPP or Omnicom in 2025
By Brian Bonilla
Publicis Groupe dominated the new business front in 2025, winning 56% of all global billings from new business opportunities, according to the latest new business report ranking holding companies from Mediasense.
Of the 3,885 pitches tallied by the consultancy, Publicis won 1,458. WPP took second place with 672 wins; Omnicom was right behind with 656 wins. The rankings included Interpublic Group of Companies, which was acquired by Omnicom late last year, as its own entity with 192 total wins. If the wins at Omnicom and IPG were combined, Omnicom would have been second in total wins.
Publicis, WPP and Omnicom weren’t immediately available for comment.
In an interview with Ad Age, Greg Paull, Mediasense’s president of global growth, said the ranking corrects a misnomer about the French holding company.
“I think people see Publicis as a media-driven holding company, but actually it [showed] a diversity of wins in social, public relations, creative, influencer, and data,” he said.
Publicis’ new business revenue from creative ($622.8 million) was higher than its new business revenue from media ($471 million).
That’s especially notable because the number of creative pitches and billings from those pitches overall was down 17% from the prior year, according to Mediasense. The number of media pitches dropped 11% and media billings were 17% lower than in 2024.
WPP also had a strong showing creatively ($363.8 million in new business), led by Ogilvy, Paull said, but its results were “dragged down” by media, which posted a $127.1 million decline in new business revenue. As a result, the British holding company’s media revenue from account losses exceeded its revenue from wins.
2025 was the most dominant year for a holding company, according to Paull, who has been helping compile these rankings since 2002.
“We never had a year this dominant,” Paull said. “Last year, 2024, [Publicis] won about 40% of the business, and even that was a record.”
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