IPA Releases First Agency League Table Based On Income
The Institute for Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) has today published its new league table of UK creative agencies, that challenges the tradition of using billings with a compilation made according to actual income.
The league table, which will be published on an annual basis, is based on figures derived from actual revenues, including media commissions and fees, received from clients by those IPA member agencies with annual incomes over £500k during the year 2000.
IPA President Ruper Howell commented: “The publication of the income league table puts the leading creative agencies in our industry in context for the first time”
| IPA Member Agencies Income League 2000 | ||
| Rank | Agency | Income for 2000 (£m) |
| 1 | McCann-Erickson UK Group | 74 |
| 2 | Saatchi & Saatchi | 56.9 |
| 3 | J Walter Thompson Co Ltd * | 44.1 |
| 4 | TBWA Group** | 37.6 |
| 5 | Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO Ltd | 37.4 |
| 6 | BMP DDB Ltd | 35.5 |
| 7 | Ogilvy & Mather Ltd | 34.8 |
| 8 | M & C Saatchi | 34.7 |
| 9 | Lowe Lintas Ltd | 31.3 |
| 10 | Leo Burnett Ltd*** | 30.8 |
| 11 | Bartle Bogle Hegarty Ltd | 27.8 |
| 12 | WWAV Rapp Collins Group | 27.1 |
| 13 | Publicis Ltd | 26.8 |
| 14 | D’Arcy**** | 25.3 |
| 15 | Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R | 24.9 |
| 16 | Grey Worldwide | 23.7 |
| 17 | HHCL + Partners | 20.9 |
| 18 | Bates UK Ltd***** | 18.9 |
| 19 | WCRS Ltd | 18.3 |
| 20 | OgilvyOne Worldwide | 17.7 |
| *Comprises London and Manchester Offices | ||
| **Comprises TBWA London, BDH TBWA and Maher Bird | ||
| ***Includes four ancillary service companies | ||
| ****Includes Masius and IMP | ||
| *****Includes 141 Communications | ||
The IPA’s league puts McCann-Erickson UK Group at the top by some margin, with £74m. Saatchi & Saatchi achieved second place with £56.9m, followed by J Walter Thompson (comprising the London and Manchester offices) with £44.1m and TBWA group (including TBWA London, BDH TBWA and Maher Bird Associates) with £37.6m.
The fact that these heavyweight names are at the top of the league will surprise few in the industry. Younger agencies whose names have caught industry headlines in the past year such as St Lukes (at number 24 with £10.3m) and Mother (number 35 with £4m) still have some way to go to catch up in terms of income.
The new method of ranking may cause some upsets at the top of the league. In billings compilations such as those of AC Nielsen MMS, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO has held on to the top spot for some years. In the IPA table it languishes in fifth. Meanwhile, for others including the leader McCann-Erickson, Leo Burnett and TBWA, the new methodology means a higher rank than would be expected in a billings league.
The reasoning of the IPA for this method is that it believes that billings do not truly represent the actual income received by agencies and are therefore not an accurate indicator of the size of the business. It believes this to be particularly true of creative agencies. In addition, the billings figure does not include fee income which can be derived from non-media related consultancy services. The IPA further claims that “Returns filed at Companies House may also be misleading for analysts attempting to obtain a true picture of agency income, in that corporate structures, year-ends and reporting for tax purposes differ across the industry.”
The full list of IPA member agencies ranked by income can be viewed on the IPA website (see below).
IPA: 020 7201 8211 www.ipa.co.uk
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