DIRECT RESPONSE advertising agency Brann Worldwide topped the Direct Marketing Association’s 1998 billings report with $2.7 billion, an increase over the previous year’s $2.03 billion.
Coming in second was DraftWorldwide Inc., which broke the $2.1 billion mark, up from $1.5 billion in 1997. Next was Wunderman Cato Johnson, whose billings rose more than $300 million, to $1.9 billion from $1.6 billion the year before.
In fourth place was Rapp Collins Worldwide, which reported billings of $1.8 billion compared with 1997’s $1.6 billion. Next, OgilvyOne Worldwide weighed in with total billings of $1.6 billion, an increase over $1.4 billion the year earlier.
Coming in sixth, Carlson Marketing Group had billings of $864.5 million, compared with $746.7 million in 1997; Bronner Slosberg Humphrey LLC posted 1998 billings of $828.4 million, compared with $675.3 million the year before; and Grey Direct Marketing Group Inc.’s billings jumped up to $764.6 million from $550.3 million. Rounding out the list, McCann Relationship Marketing’s 1998 billings were $667.2 million, up from $473.6 million in 1997 and Harte-Hanks/DiMark’s 1998 billings increased to $603.2 million from $503.6 million the year before.
A total of 102 agencies responded to requests made in 1999 for full-year 1997 and 1998 information on their U.S. and international direct response revenue and billings, as well as billings from integrated communications, according to the DMA.
All the top 10 agencies reported billings increases over 1997. Eighty percent of agencies submitting figures for both years indicated they had higher billings last year compared with ’97.
Put together by the DMA’s Agency Leaders Group, these rankings are based on billings from standard direct response agency services; revenue from DR client services; billings from agencies that have in-house production capabilities; and billings from DR agencies whose services include sales promotion, public relations and general awareness advertising.
These trends reflect the overall growth of direct marketing in business today. According to a DMA-commissioned study conducted by The WEFA Group, direct marketing sales in the United States exceeded $1.3 trillion in 1998. Of this total, approximately $759 billion in DM purchases were made by consumers and $612 billion were made by businesses.
But this boom may not last. The same study also implied that while DM sales growth is projected to increase annually by a still very healthy 8.6% over the next five years, direct marketing spending-which includes DR advertising-is projected to grow at a significantly lower rate.
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