PHD Canada is one of only 17 agencies worldwide to receive the top grade in the latest “Compitches” report from RECMA, the Paris-based company specializing in media agency research.
The new report ranks 650 agencies from 44 countries on their effectiveness in pitches in 2013. It is based on a total of 1,833 pitches around the world, including 688 key pitches (defined as $100 million-plus assignments in the U.S., $40 million in China and $15 million in markets such as the United Kingdom and Germany).
Only 3% of the agencies assessed by RECMA received an A+ grade, with PHD Canada leading all Canadian shops. It is the first time the Omnicom Media Group shop has received an A+ rating in the annual report.
“It’s a big deal for us,” said PHD Canada president Fred Forster of the ranking. “There are only 17 agencies worldwide out of 650 that achieved that kind of ranking, so it says you’re doing something right.
“The RECMA ratings are something we in the media industry follow quite closely, and now marketers are following it quite closely, particularly on the global stage,” added Forster.
Forster attributed PHD’s success in the report to several factors, including the 2013 establishment of Touché as a second national network – significantly beefing up the agency’s French-language capabilities and enabling it to compete in areas where it had previously been conflicted.
“It’s a really big deal for a lot of clients, and we can show equal strength in innovation and creativity in both markets,” said Forster. “We got separate brands that can compete on their own.”
Forster also noted that Touché has “caught fire” on the new business front, with several successive years of double-digit growth capped by its win of the Canadian Tire Corporation assignment last year (CTC spent $66.8 million on media – excluding digital – in 2012, according to the most recent ad spend figures from Nielsen Media Research Canada).
Last year also saw Touché open a Toronto office headed by Terry Horton, primarily to service the CTC account, but with an eye towards future growth.
Touché’s growth was at the heart of what Forster called a “very busy” 2013 that saw PHD enter between 30 to 40 pitches. “We were busier working on new stuff last year than we’ve ever been,” he said.
Forster estimated that PHD was successful in “well over 50%” of those pitches and has carried that momentum into 2014 with recent wins, including a three-year contract for Quebec tourism, Nest Labs, credit card payment service Square.com and an unspecified retail client.
Carat was the highest scoring network on a North American basis – which represents 20% of the total score for the 44 countries – for the second straight year, followed by OMD, PHD, Mindshare and Starcom MediaVest Group.
MediaCom led all agencies on a global basis, followed by Carat, ZenithOptimedia, Mindshare and OMD.
The report found that agencies successfully retained an account in 413 of the 1,833 pitches (22%), with 214 retentions by agencies in the world’s top 14 advertising markets.
