Publicis Groupe won 56% of all global new business billings in the first half of 2025, according to competitive tracking data reported across industry publications. WPP and Omnicom split the remainder. The margin is wide enough that allocators watching agency M&A or media-planning consolidation need to update their models.
The H1 figure represents net new billings captured in competitive reviews, not organic growth across existing client relationships. Publicis participated in fewer total pitches than its London and New York peers but converted at a rate that suggests either pricing discipline or a structural advantage in how procurement committees evaluate platform integration. The company has spent three years embedding its Epsilon data asset and its Sapient consulting practice into media and creative pitches, a bundling strategy that appears to be working in categories where clients are collapsing agency rosters.
This matters because the Omnicom-IPG merger, expected to close in the second half of 2025, was premised on scale as a defensive moat. Publicis is now demonstrating that 56% share in new business is achievable without betting the holding company on a merger. The implication for brand allocators: the largest agency by billings may not be the agency with the most leverage in procurement negotiations. For family offices with media or hospitality exposure, this creates optionality. Publicis is pricing for margin, not market share, which means they are walking away from low-return work that WPP or the combined Omnicom-IPG entity may be forced to defend.
The timing also matters. Publicis reported these results while Omnicom is still navigating regulatory clearance in Brussels and Beijing for the IPG acquisition. If the deal closes in Q3 as expected, the combined entity will control roughly $25 billion in annual billings, but Publicis will have spent six months capturing share from clients who paused spending decisions during the integration uncertainty. That dynamic has precedent: when Publicis acquired Sapient in 2014, it took eighteen months for competitor holding companies to rebuild their consulting benches.
Operators and allocators should watch three specific markers in the second half. First, whether Publicis converts H1 pitch wins into retained billings by Q4, or whether clients renegotiate scope after the Omnicom-IPG deal closes. Second, whether WPP, which has been quiet on large logo wins since losing portions of the Coca-Cola media account in late 2024, shifts to an acquisition strategy to rebuild data capabilities. Third, whether any of the 56% new business volume came from luxury or travel clients, which would signal that Publicis is now competing directly with specialist agencies that family offices and development groups typically prefer for brand storytelling work.
Publicis has not disclosed the category mix of the H1 wins, but the company's investor call is scheduled for late July. The billings figure will appear in that deck, and the category breakdown will clarify whether this was a media-planning story or a broader shift in how global brands are buying creative and technology services.