Advertising & Marketing Services Industry Profile

The world's major advertising companies include Interpublic Group and Omnicom (both based in the US); Dentsu (Japan); Publicis (France); and WPP (Ireland). The digital marketing arms of global consulting firms Accenture, Deloitte, IBM, and PwC also rank among the top agencies by revenue, according to Agency Spotter.

Global ad spending is about $650 billion per year, according to a forecast from the World Advertising and Research Center. The top markets by ad spend include the US, China, Japan, the UK, and Germany, according to Zenith. Outside of the US, major contributors to ad spend growth through 2021 include China, India, Japan, and the UK.

The US advertising and marketing services industry includes about 38,000 establishments (single-location companies and units of multi-location companies) with combined annual revenue of about $105 billion.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Migration of ad spending to digital media continues to drive change in the industry. Global media owner revenue from digital ads, including search, social, and mobile, has surpassed TV ad revenue, according to Zenith. Within the industry, competition is high between firms that provide traditional TV or print advertising and those that provide more modern digital and mobile/social focused services. This leads many larger firms to create or acquire brands that offer a wider array of services.

At the same time, some of the world's largest consultancies have entered the advertising industry, including Accenture Interactive, PwC, IBM's iX, and Deloitte. These ...