Tony Wazen, Chief Executive Officer, Publicis Media Middle East.Publicis Media Middle East has been ranked the #1 media group in the GCC region for total new business, according to the 2025 COMvergence Global New Business Barometer, which tracks new business performance across the global media industry.
In total new business, which includes retention wins, WPP Media MENA and Omnicom Media – MENA are joint second media groups in the GCC region.
However, in terms of net new wins, which excludes retention wins, the media groups rankings in the GCC region paint a different picture.
WPP Media MENA ranked #1 media group in net new wins (without retention) in the GCC region, while Publicis Media Middle East comes in second and Omnicom Media – MENA comes in third.
The COMVergence report also highlights other key rankings, including individual rankings of agency by market– both in terms of total new billings (including retention) as well as net new billings (without retention), highlighting the strength of agency performances across the region.
At the agency level, Spark Foundry ranks #1 in the GCC as an agency network and #1 agency by market for total new business (including retentions) with OMD MENA taking the #2 spot, Mindshare taking the #3 spot and Starcom and PHD claiming the 4th and 5th spot, respectively.
However, in terms of net new wins, which excludes retention, Spark Foundry drops lower because of a 100 per cent retention rate.
Therefore, in terms of new wins at the agency level, OMD MENA claims the #1 agency by market spot in the GCC region, followed by Mindshare and Starcom in 2nd and 3rd spots, respectively, while Spark Foundry comes in 4th and PHD comes in 5th in these rankings.
Globally, the 2025 rankings also place Publicis Media as the #1 media group in new business, leading both total and net new business, generating $10bn in new client billings — equivalent to one third of all media spend that shifted between agencies in 2025.
Key wins included Coca-Cola in North America and 15 global or regional accounts, including Aldi, Barilla, Campari, Dropbox, Essilor, Friesland Campina, Goodyear, Kenvue, LinkedIn, Mars, Paramount, PayPal, Santander, Savencia and The Magnum Ice Cream Company.
Tony Wazen, Chief Executive Officer of Publicis Media Middle East, said, “These results reflect the consistency of our performance across the GCC and the strength of the model we’ve built, both in the region and globally. We bring together media, data and technology in a way that delivers measurable outcomes for our clients. In a more complex and evolving environment, that consistency matters more than ever”.
Starcom is ranked the #1 media network globally with total new business value of $2.7bn, driven by wins including Mars and Aldi globally, and the retention of Luxottica in the US.
Four groups followed at a distance — Mediabrands (2nd), Dentsu (3rd), HAVAS Media Network (4th) and Omnicom Media (OMG) (5th).
Initiative ranked #2 globally with $2.4bn, on the back of winning Bayer globally, and Paramount Network and Anthropic in the US.
Spark Foundry ranked #3 globally at $2.1bn , buoyed by the global wins of Kenvue and Paramount.
In terms of net new business, Starcom also leads the ranking, followed by Spark Foundry and Initiative, posting net new billing gains of more than $1.9bn, $1.7bn and $1.4bn respectively.
