Reports reaching Brand Communicator has it that Unilever has reappointed Mindshare to handle global media account covering top markets including China and India, US and the UK, with the billings amounting to approximately USD 3.3 billion globally.
The pitch was the first open review from Unilever in six years since 2015.
For WPP, GroupM and Mindshare, this victory is a major retention and expansion of a huge business. The group, including China, expanded its remittances to about 80 per cent of its global business and was worth more than USD 3.4 billion. The brief, the largest it’s ever been for WPP, is seven times larger than that of Unilever’s next largest media agency.
However, other holding companies have acquired some of their operations in some markets. Omnicom’s PHD has won Austria, Germany and Switzerland from WPP, and Havas Media has won France from WPP. Holding companies have also lost Spain and Canada, and the IPG initiative has retained some of its business.
Media reports also suggest that Publicis and Dentsu were contenders in the pitch, despite Publicis picking up Unilever’s USD 30 million retail advertising brief in March. Accenture Interactive reportedly competed for the business early on.
The brief included centralising Unilever’s entire media business, including data, analytics, planning, purchasing and social, under a single agency in a particular market.