Marketing services agencies; Interactive and direct marketing lead the charge as marketing services shops gain 3.9% to $5.95 billion in revenue; Carlson tops independent agencies; Omnicom paces agency groups.(Special Report: Marketing Services)

Advertising Age, May, 2004

Byline: KENNETH WYLIE

Marketing services are back, not with a bang but with the steady ring of the cash register.

Marketing services, defined in this report as direct marketing, sales promotion and interactive, grew 3.9% in the U.S. to $5.95 billion in revenue in 2003, the first positive growth since the trio of services advanced a heady 20%-plus in 2000, according to Advertising Age's 17th annual Marketing Services Report.

The broad-based industry had declined 6.9% in 2001 revenue and a further 3.5% in 2002 as it found itself squeezed by the dot-com bust and an economic downturn particularly hard on the project-related work characteristic of the business. Prior to the decline in 2001, annual gains in marketing services were as regular as the...

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