World's Biggest Media Buyer Gets Even Bigger, WPP's Billings Grow 13% To $56 Billion

by Joe Mandese, Friday, Feb 23, 2007 8:33 AM ET
WPP, THE WORLD'S LARGEST BUYER of media, is getting even bigger. The parent of MindShare, Mediaedge:cia, MediaCom and Maxus this morning reported that its media billings grew 13% during 2006 to $55.6 billion. Based on estimates from WPP's own GroupM unit, that would give the U.K.-based agency holding company a 14.1% share of the $395.1 billion global media marketplace during 2006. Media services such as planning and buying, in fact, continued to show the greatest growth of all of WPP's service sectors during 2006, and digital and interactive media are playing an increasingly larger role within that. Direct and digital-related services now account for more than 20% of WPP's total revenues, which are running at the rate of more than $11 billion per year, the company said in a report on its preliminary 2006 results released early this morning.
"Media investment management and information, insight & consultancy combined, grew by 10% in the year on a like-for-like basis, well ahead of independent competitors," the company said.

GroupM's units were especially strong contributors, generating an estimated $4.361 billion in net new billings during 2006.