Global drinks giant Diageo has concluded its comprehensive review for its media account, valued at approximately $2.3bn globally, with no major changes.

 

Diageo, which owns the Smirnoff, Guinness and Johnnie Walker brands, will partner with Dentsu Aegis Networks’ Aegis in North America, WPP’s Mindshare in India and South Africa, and Publicis Media’s Mediavest in Australia.

In an official statement from Diageo, a spokesperson confirmed that the review across five key regions, which started in May and was expected to conclude early 2017, had finished early with no dramatic changes.

“Now that the review has concluded, we remain focused on the future and our ambitious plans ahead,” the statement read.

Presenting Diageo’s half year results in January, chief financial officer Kathy Mikells said the firm had achieved £40m ($58m) in “procurement efficiencies”.

“We have been improving the efficiency of our marketing spend for a couple of years, and now we are definitely building a capability here,” Mikells added. “For example, we renegotiated media costs in North America, Europe, Brazil, Mexico and Australia.

“We’ve become more stringent and demanding when reviewing production cost and agency fees.”

In November 2014, Diageo hired L’Oreal’s APAC media director Stephanie Bell as its head of global marketing procurement. Prior to joining L’Oreal in 2010, Bell spent nearly a decade in roles at WPP’s GroupM and Mindshare, and has also held roles with Zenith, Carat and Saatchi & Saatchi.