Full year billing figures released this week by ACNielsen MMS put Carat at the head of Britain's media agency league table, rudely terminating Zenith Media’s ten-year tenure on the title.
By December 2001, Carat’s aggregated billings for the year had soared to £569.32 million – up from £518.87m in 2000 – while Zenith dropped £100m over the same period, plummeting to £505.35m from the previous year’s £606.67m.
Mediacom dug itself into third place, a mere £20m behind Zenith with billings of £485.34m. Mindshare, up by £65m on 2000, occupies fourth place, total billings £446.52m.
And the runners-up are …
5. Initiative Media (£331.43m)
6. Starcom Motive (£296.37m)
7. MediaVest (£273.61m)
8. PHD (£254.64m)
9. *OMD UK (£248.18m)
10. Universal McCann (£231.60m)
* Excludes £58.8m in 2001 billings for second string BMP Solutions in Media, merged last week into OMD.
The ACNielsen MMS figures exclude direct, sponsorship and new media.
News source: Media Week (UK)