NEW YORK: Publicis Groupe's MediaVest has beaten WPP's MindShare to the $500m (€376m, £333m) Mars-Wrigley consolidated US media account. Mars bought rival confectionery giant Wrigley for $23bn last April.
The switch is a further blow to WPP, which recently failed to win the London Olympic Games 2012 account, losing out to Interpublic's McCann-Erickson when it was the hot favourite to win.
WPP's Kinetic, however, is to retain the company's out-of-home planning and buying.
MediaVest has handled Mars since 2004, while Wrigley had been with MindShare since 2006. MediaVest, as the longest incumbent on the biggest part of the merged business, was always favourite to win the merged account.
Jennifer Jackson-Luth, senior manager marketing communications at Wrigley, says “We initiated the review to identify the best partner to manage our respective media needs using appropriate staff efficiencies and streamlined communication that will inevitably strengthen our competitive advantage and bring additional value to consumers.”
Which suggests that Mars-Wrigley has secured substantial cost savings, even though the company declined to quantify them.
The switch is a further blow to WPP, which recently failed to win the London Olympic Games 2012 account, losing out to Interpublic's McCann-Erickson when it was the hot favourite to win.
WPP's Kinetic, however, is to retain the company's out-of-home planning and buying.
MediaVest has handled Mars since 2004, while Wrigley had been with MindShare since 2006. MediaVest, as the longest incumbent on the biggest part of the merged business, was always favourite to win the merged account.
Jennifer Jackson-Luth, senior manager marketing communications at Wrigley, says “We initiated the review to identify the best partner to manage our respective media needs using appropriate staff efficiencies and streamlined communication that will inevitably strengthen our competitive advantage and bring additional value to consumers.”
Which suggests that Mars-Wrigley has secured substantial cost savings, even though the company declined to quantify them.
Data sourced from AdAge; additional content by WARC staff
