Zenith and Core have maintained their leadership of Ireland’s media agency market, while PHD has emerged as one of the strongest performers in the opening months of 2026, according to RECMA’s latest Ireland report.
RECMA’s first quarterly qualitative assessment of the Irish market for 2026- also known as Qualipack- places Zenith at the top of the agency ranking with 20 points and classifies it as the market’s only “Dominant” agency.
RECMA’s qualitative scores are calculated across 18 criteria split evenly between “Vitality” and “Structure.” Vitality measures factors such as pitch performance, new-business balance, client portfolio and three-year activity growth, pitch participation, awards and agency leadership.
Structure, meanwhile, assesses specialist digital, data and content resources, the share of non-traditional activity and the strength, diversity, concentration and longevity of the client portfolio, including client retention.
Overall, the rankings are designed to measure momentum and organisational strength, rather than simply agency size or billings.
Another two Core agencies are ranked second and third with 19 points for Spark Foundry and 14 for Starcom. Both are classified as “High Profile”, meaning the three highest-ranked agencies are all part of Core.
PHD moves into fourth place with 12 points and a “High Profile” classification, following a nine-point improvement in its score. Carat, Havas Media and OMD share fifth position with 11 points each and are classified as “Very Good”.
Elsewhere, WPP Media agencies Wavemaker (5), EssenceMediacom (3) and Mindshare (1) shored up the remaining agencies.
At group level, Core remains the clear market leader with a combined qualitative score of 53 points. Following the Omnicom acquisition of IPG in 2025, Omnicom Media ranks second with 27 points. Its portfolio includes PHD, OMD, UM and Initiative.
dentsu is third with 16 points, followed by Havas Media Network on 11 and WPP Media on 10. The WPP total includes an additional point for OpenDoor, the dedicated WPP unit responsible for the Amazon account.
Although Zenith heads the overall qualitative ranking, Spark Foundry leads RECMA’s separate vitality assessment with 11 points.
Vitality measures factors including recent new-business performance, client portfolio growth, pitch competitiveness, awards and three-year activity growth.
Zenith is second on 10 points, while PHD, Havas Media and Starcom each score eight. Mindshare is at the bottom of the vitality table with minus two points, behind EssenceMediacom on minus one.
A separate RECMA report, covering 2025, examines Overall Activity Volume during 2025 and provides a quantitative ranking based on the estimated value of the work handled by agencies.
RECMA estimated the Irish market covered by the report at €905m representing growth of 6.1% from €853m in 2024.
Overall Activity Volume includes traditional media buying and planning, online paid media and fee-based services such as search, social media, content, data, e-commerce and artificial intelligence. It is worth stressing that this should not be interpreted solely as “monitored” advertising expenditure.
RECMA estimates that share of non-traditional activity increased from 37% in 2024 to 39% in 2025, reflecting the growing contribution of digital, data, content and other specialist services.
The 2025 findings also highlighted that Zenith was the largest individual agency in 2025, with Overall Activity Volume of €135m and a 14.9% market share.
Starcom ranked second with €110m, followed by Spark Foundry on €104m, Carat on €102m and OMD on €100m. Mindshare was sixth with €89m, narrowly ahead of PHD on €87m with EssenceMediacom, Wavemaker, dentsu X, Havas Media, UM and Initiative completed the ranking.
At group level, Core — identified as Publicis Media in the quantitative table — handled €350m and increased its market share from 36% in 2024 to 38.7% in 2025.
The combined Omnicom Media operation accounted for €218m and 24.1% of the market. The legacy Omnicom Media Group agencies, OMD and PHD, generated €187m, representing a 20.7% share.
WPP Media ranked third with €172m and a 19.1% share, down from €200m and 23.4% in 2024. Dentsu generated €137m followed by the legacy IPG Mediabrands agencies on €31m and Havas Media Network on €27m.
Taken together, the reports show Core retaining a substantial lead on both market scale and qualitative performance. Zenith leads at agency level, Core leads among groups and PHD is emerging as the most significant upward mover in 2026.
