Accounts in Review: Nine Months (January-September) 2015 Activity

2015 is being called the year of the media review… there have been a host of mega media reviews.

Published reviews that 4A’s has aggregated for nine month (January-September) Accounts in Review activity for 2015 when compared with prior year activity show lower levels of activity:

January-September Review Activity
2014 2015 %Change
Total # Reviews 397 312 -21%
Consultant Reviews 68 63 -7%
Reviews involving Media 95 93 -2%

 

There are a number of hypothesis on why the level review activity that is captured in the 4A’s Accounts in Review analysis has changed from prior years levels including:

  • The 4A’s Accounts in Review analysis captures activity that is reported in the industry trade press. The 4A’s report is know to be only a subset of total review activity and the 4A’s analysis skews to larger reviews that garner coverage in the trade press.
  • There are an increasing number of project reviews (versus AOR/retainer reviews). Project reviews are often not reported in the trade press and therefore are often not captured in the 4A’s Accounts in Review analysis.
  • There are an increasing number of specialist reviews (Digital, social, PR, etc). Specialist reviews are often not reported in the trade press and consequently are likely not captured in the 4A’s Accounts in Review analysis.
  • In the past year or so changes in reporting staff at industry trade publications may be a contributing factor to changes in review reporting

The 4A’s Accounts in Review analysis should be viewed as qualitative information relating to the types and nature of review activity rather than being interpreted as definitive quantitative review benchmark data.

Download Accounts in Review for 2015 Third Quarter