Media agency OMD South Africa is positioned to catch the upside as companies look to increase their ad and media spend into 2023.
In a total market estimated by the Research Company Evaluating the Media Agency Industry (RECMA) at $2.7-billion in terms of overall activity volume, OMD SA lead the billings for the 16th year in a row in 2021. After a slow 2020, the market is showing green shoots and the potential to keep growing in the high double digits, and OMD is applying a new approach, together with new senior hires and appointments to ensure it stays a step ahead and maximises these opportunities for its clients.
With the market alive with demand for targeted buying and planning billings of traditional media, online paid media, and fee-based services, OMD has improved its market share to 19.4%, ahead of the 11.8% for second place.
“We’re working hard on data-centric innovations to help companies navigate complexity by reading critical market signals early,” says Julio Rodrigues, MD of OMD South Africa. “This will not only grow OMD’s edge even further in the market but position our clients ahead of their competition in the media space”.
Newly appointed general manager, Litha Vimbi, took up her position in September and will be to support Rodrigues, whose responsibilities within the international OMD company have grown. The other senior appointment comes in the form of Sifiso Pule, who has been appointed to strategy and innovation director. Pule joins specialist division leadership partners Karl Vermeulen, Gary Rice, Leilani Visser, Conraad Kakebeeke and Estelle Taljaard.
“The announcement that OMD SA has led the billings for the 16th year in a row and the decision to strengthen our executive team indicates that OMD has the potential to keep gowing. We are confident that our new appointments will translate into OMD being able to broaden its reach into accounts and markets that it has previously not fully explored,” says Rodrigues.
OMD is entering a new era in South Africa, says Rodrigues. “We are moving forward into a future filled with challenges for the advertising and media industries. Over the next few months, with Litha and Sifiso adding new perspectives, we will be developing new internal and external strategies and working towards creating additional value for our clients.”
“We have futher improved our position by winning accounts that include Discovery, SA Tourism and Diageo in 2020. Dr.Oetker, Philips, and British Airways selected us as partners in 2021. Increases in ad spend by several major clients as they regained momentum after the pandemic further cemented our position. Overall, the OMG/Omnicom, of which we, and PHD are members, retained its leadership position locally, with 31.2% of the market recording total activity worth about $846 million in 2021, up from $739 million in 2020, reflecting a growth rate of 14%.”
Recent industry wins for OMD include AdWeek’s Global Media Agency of the Year and MediaPost’s Holding Company of the Year, and the coveted Cannes Lions Media Network of the Year 2022. A recent report by leading international research company, Forrester has scored OMD the highest possible scores across retail media, commerce, audience, intelligence and insights, optimisation, operations and innovation road map, while the latest report by research company, COMvergence ranks OMD as the number one media agency worldwide. This marks the fifth consecutive number one ranking for OMD Worldwide since COMvergence published its first global billings report in 2017.
