Publicis Media is toasting a successful end to 2016, having picked up major international accounts for both Mars and Fiat Chrysler.
The group’s agencies have picked up multiple markets in Mars’ review of media buying across seven territories, while Starcom has prevailed in Fiat’s review media across EMEA and Asia Pacific.
In the case of Mars, the confectionery and pet food giant revealed in September that it was seeking agencies to handle media buying in China, India, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, South East Asia, the UK and Germany – believed to amount to in excess of $500m in media billings.
Starcom has secured the business for the UK, China, South East Asia, Germany and India – winning the latter two markets from MediaCom, which itself picked up the accounts for Australia and New Zealand.
Mars told M&M Global in a statement: “To ensure that we have the strongest possible media-buying agencies supporting our business objectives around the world, Mars Inc marketing teams in seven key markets […] conducted concurrent media-buying agency pitches this fall.
“Our teams evaluated each agency proposal on both qualitative and quantitative criteria. After thorough analysis of each agency’s proposals at local and global levels, Mars is excited to announce the following assignments […] Local buying agency transitions will begin immediately and will impact our 2017 media investments.
“We’re delighted to continue our partnerships with both Mediacom and Starcom as we continue to drive performance and innovation through our media agenda.”
In the case of Fiat Chrysler, the Italian car-maker called a review of its media planning and buying in the EMEA and APAC regions in July. It is believed that Starcom has won the business for 30 markets from GroupM’s Maxus, worth an estimated $600m.
Publicis Media declined to comment on the reports, while Fiat also declined to respond.
It concludes a significant 12 months for Publicis, which earlier this year overhauled its media offering, placing four reshaped agency networks – Zenith, Starcom, Spark | Mediavest and Blue 449 – under the new umbrella organisation, Publicis Media.
It followed the loss of several major accounts in 2015, including Procter & Gamble and Walmart in the US.