Advertising and Marketing

The US advertising and marketing services industry includes about 35,000 companies with combined annual revenue of about $80 billion. Major companies include Interpublic, Omnicom, Publicis, and WPP. The industry is fragmented: the top 50 companies generate less than 40 percent of revenue.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Demand for advertising and marketing services comes largely from businesses that sell consumer products, entertainment, financial services, technology, and telecommunications. The profitability of individual companies depends on creative skills and maintaining client relationships. Large companies benefit from being able to serve the varied needs of major customers. Small companies can compete by focusing on niche markets or by offering lower pricing.

New competition for advertising and marketing business has come from database marketing companies, systems integrators, and telemarketers.

PRODUCTS, OPERATIONS & TECHNOLOGY

Major services are advertising for print, broadcast, and online media (35 percent of industry sales), direct mail advertising (20 percent), and public relations (10 percent). Other services include display advertising, media buying (purchasing advertising time or space from media outlets and reselling it to agencies or advertisers), and media representation (selling advertising time or space on behalf of media outlet owners).

Advertising agencies have two main activities: developing ads for a variety of media and placing ads with media outlets. While agencies charge fees for a large number of services, the most significant share of revenues are from commissions on "billings," the amounts customers spend actually buying advertising time. Large agencies provide a ...