Biggest Ad Agency Groups

Omnicom Group Inc. and Interpublic Group Are Largest in USA

Sep 16, 2008

By merging agencies or forming affiliations, four North American and European groups have managed to dominate the world advertising business. Here's how they compare.

Omnicom and Interpublic of New York, WPP of London and Publicis of Paris are considered the four biggest advertising groups in the world. Together they account for about 157,000 employees in well over 100 countries. Omnicom alone says it has 5,000 clients.

In 2007 the four reported total revenues of approximately $36 billion, the exact amount depending upon the conversion of euros and British pounds into dollars. That was nearly $2 billion more than Advertising Age reported they took in the previous year, when the magazine rated Omnicom first, WPP second, Interpublic third and Publicis fourth.

The four are more accurately identified as groups than as agencies because each includes several traditional agencies, including some of the oldest and most respected. All four were formed and continue to expand through mergers, acquisitions and affiliations. Each addition brings in new clients, offices and employees.

Interpublic Group Says It Is Oldest

The Interpublic Group claims it is the oldest of the four, going back to the founding of Foote Cone and Belding (FCB) in 1873. That agency is now part of Draftfcb, one of Interpublic’s major companies. But Interpublic itself resulted from mergers of Erickson and McCann in 1930 into McCann Erickson, followed by the acquistion and/or mergers of a series of agencies, including Marschalk and Pratt in 1960 and Draftfcb.

In 1926, twenty-year-old Marcel Bieustein opened Publicis in a small office in Faubourg Montmartre, stressing the importance of establishing close relationships with the customer. Publicis means advertising in French.

WPP had perhaps the most unusual beginning. In 1985 Martin Sorrell bought a stake in Wire and Plastic Products Plc in London and converted it to an ad agency the next year. In 1987 he purchased New York’s revered J. Walter Thompson ad agency and the Hill and Knowlton public relations agency for $566 million and folded them into the WPP family.

Omnicom Group Launched in 1986

Omnicom was formed in 1986 by merging three of New York’s biggest ad agencies, BBDO, Doyle Dane Bernbach and NeedhamHarper Worldwide.

Most of the world's top agencies are members of the big four. Here are their primary companies:

WPP Lists 110,000 Employees

Agencies are normally ranked by their revenues, offices and employees, but the comparisons are often confusing, especially when dealing with organizations of this size. Here are the numbers the big four publish:

2007 Revenues— Omnicom $12.7 billion; WPP $10.4 billion; Publicis $6.6 billion; Interpublic $6.55 billion;

Offices-- Omnicom 2,500; WPP 2,000+; Interpublic has offices in over 100 countries; Publicis 726

Number of countries--Omnicon 120; WPP 106; Publicis 104; Interpublic says it has more than 100

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