The assignment--which consolidates all media planning for Wyeth's consumer division, representing 16 major over-the-counter brands such as Advil, Robitussin, and Centrum--brings TargetCast's annualized billings to $350 million, putting it in a category with the other mid-size independents like Horizon Media and The Media Kitchen.
"In a period when the agency business has seemed unhealthy or stagnant to so many, we're probably the fastest-growing agency in the business," boasted TargetCast's Farella, who ran MPG, and the media departments of Young & Rubicam, Wells Rich Greene, and Ammirati & Puris before striking out on his own with Siegel. The Wyeth win is the biggest in a recent string of media accounts for the agency that includes full-service media duties for TIAA-CREF (awarded in February) and Eight O'Clock Coffee (July).
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The Wyeth win is also another example of a mid-size media boutique besting media shops of greater size and ostensibly greater resources. In addition to MediaCom, Wyeth incumbents that participated in the review included Universal McCann and Carrafiello-Diehl & Associates, as well as a number of undisclosed contenders.
TargetCast specializes in a total communications planning approach to media that has become the rage among the biggest media shops, and which includes non-traditional media as well as alternative marketing platforms.