The Best- and Worst-Paying Ad Agencies
The ad agency holding company Havas -- which owns Euro RSCG network -- pays the highest salaries in the business on average, according to an estimate by Deutsche Bank analyst Matt Chesler. Aegis, the British company that owns the Carat media-buying agency in the U.S., pays the worst.
The salary estimates came as part of Chesler's analysis of how he believes five major ad agencies will fare in 2011. Havas (HAV), Interpublic (IPG), Publicis (PUB), WPP (WPPGY) and Aegis (AGS.L) will all be able to take advantage of a growth in ad budgets from major advertisers, Chesler said. Increased staffing costs -- in the form of pay raises, bonuses and increased freelancer hiring -- will put pressure on agency profits, however.
But it is his chart of average salary costs that will be of most interest to those who work in advertising. It's not clear how he calculated it but it appears that he simply divided actual or estimated headcount by actual or estimated costs to figure an average. Needless to say, the average is skewed by management (paid in the millions) and by ancilliary and janitorial staff (paid in the low five figures). Nonetheless, the numbers are a good guide as to how generous each network is relative to its peers, should you be considering a future employer:
- Agency: 2008, 2009, 2010E, 2011E, 2012E
- Havas: 104,389, 99,691, 110,817, 113,915, 117,172
- IPG: 96,511, 100,025, 97,974, 100,496, 101,944
- Publicis: 85,994, 83,412, 96,057, 98,801, 101,773
- WPP: 70,719, 74,551, 84,259, 86,935, 88,781
- Aegis: 64,874, 66,077, 73,347, 77,748, 80,858
Notably, all the agencies will see average staff costs rise in the years to come. Pay raises for many, to be sure. Those costs will rise because of increased demand on their services from major clients. Chesler produced this chart, based on Kantar Media numbers, showing how the 10 largest advertisers in the U.S. increased their spend last year -- and thus can be expected to increase it again this year (click to enlarge):
Good times are here again! The average forecasted increase for global adspend in 2011 will be 5.1 percent, Chesler says.
Related:
Image by Flickr user stevendepolo, CC.