Mindshare leads China billings in 2009 : RECMA

Mindshare secures over one fifth - 20.2 per cent - share of the total billings for the 16 major agency brands in the country, while ZenithOptimedia snatches 18.1 per cent, or US$2.04 billion.

However, the moves of Unilever (US$445 million) from Mindshare to PHD, and PepsiCo (US$100 million) from Mindshare to OMD, announced in December 2009, are expected to affect the ranking in 2010.

Two other agencies in the top five list are Starcom SMG (14.1 per cent) and Aegis Media's Carat (10.5 per cent). Another GroupM member MediaCom and Omnicom's OMD, both rank in fifth place, each taking home 7.6 per cent of the pie.

In terms of networks, GroupM takes the lead with US$4.01 billion overall billings in 2009, followed by VivaKi (US$3.62 billion) and Aegis Media (US$1.34).

RECMA's estimate includes all accounts with a gross ad spend of more than US$6 million in 2009. It is estimated these major accounts represent more than 70 per cent of total ad expenditures. The accounts that were not included are believed to have no impact on the agency rankings, especially because most of them are handled by local agencies or brokers.

RECMA estimates that China's media industry accounts for US$10.3 billion or 4.1 per cent of the global media industry in 2009.

Globally, RECMA named Omnicom network OMD with billings of US$27.8 billion as the global market leader, earning top ranking in the US and EMEA.