In the delicate choreography of agency reviews, there is typically a moment when the incumbent gets to stand at the front of the room and remind everyone why they should stay. PepsiCo, it appears, has decided to skip that part.
The beverage and snack giant has awarded its global media account to Publicis Groupe, moving the business away from Omnicom Media Group in a decision made without a formal pitch process. The shift, which involves one of the largest advertising portfolios in the world, will be felt acutely at the New York-based holding company, which had handled the relationship for years.
That PepsiCo chose not to conduct a review — the ritualized evaluation that typically precedes such moves and allows agencies to genuflect before procurement departments — suggests either an unusual degree of confidence in Publicis or an equally unusual degree of impatience with the status quo. (Or perhaps both, though the former is easier to discuss in polite company.)
The decision follows a period of consolidation among major marketers, many of whom have been streamlining their agency rosters in search of what holding companies like to call "integration" and what chief financial officers like to call "cost savings." Publicis, which has been particularly aggressive in pitching its connected data capabilities through its Epsilon and Publicis Sapient units, has won several such consolidations in recent years.
For Omnicom, the loss arrives at an awkward moment. The company has been working to demonstrate the coherence of its own media offerings and had counted PepsiCo among its flagship relationships.
A spokesperson for PepsiCo declined to comment on the reasoning behind the decision. Representatives for Omnicom and Publicis did not immediately respond to requests for comment, which is the industry's traditional way of saying that the news is either very good or very bad, depending on which side of the transaction one sits.
Original story published in adage.com: "Agency Brief—Omnicom hires Abi Evans, Chipotle hires Kids agency - Ad Age"