MediaCom is irked after RECMA readjusted its 2012 media billings and found another $378 million for Mitchells, booting it off the top spot. OMD's billings were also boosted while MediaCom's dipped.
RECMA issued figures last month that estimated MediaCom as Australia's largest media agency by billings in 2012, with $1.215 billion. Last night it issued a statement to affected agencies that it had re-evaluated its results and come up with new figures.
Those results put Mitchell & Partners at number one, with billings of $1.265 billion. RECMA had initially stated that Mitchell & Partners' billings for 2012 were $887 million. The new figures put it $3 million ahead of OMD, which at $1.262 billion under the new figures, has increased by $61 million to $1.262 billion.
MediaCom's figures have been revised down from $1.215 billion to $1.182 billion. The remaining top media agency rankings by billings are unaffected.
It is understood that RECMA revised its figures after complaints by at least one media agency that a change in methodology had omitted key data. One issue was that its figures, which did not include some Nielsen data included in previous audits, had excluded accounts under one million dollars.
With the long tail now factored in, the top of the billings tree has an altered hierarchy. However, some media agency seniors were puzzled by the changes, suggesting that some of the billings increases seemed disproportionately large in relation to the number of small clients on their rosters.
One theory was that Mitchells' new 2012 billing figures had included big retail accounts since shifted into Carat. Another agency senior said that the figures were only ever an approximation and that size wasn't everything.
MediaCom boss Mark Pejic said the agency has raised the issue with RECMA and questioned its methodology.
Luke Littlefield, head of Aegis, said that he was "very pleased with the affirmation that Mitchells was number one in 2012. That is consistent with our view". He also praised the progress made by Carat and Vizeum and expressed his thanks to "the support from our clients and staff in achieving these outcomes".
Peter Horgan, head of OMD, said that the development "had to be taken with a pinch of salt". "The big three are fairly close but stand for fundamentally different things. Scale is fairly one-dimensional. It is more about what that lets you invest in."
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