Asia is turning into a hotbed of big pitch
activity for media agencies.
Sources confirm that Procter & Gamble has awarded a $450 million media planning and buying assignment to WPP's MediaCom after a formal review. The
incumbent on the account was Publicis Groupe's Starcom MediaVest Group.
Word of the decision follows a review by Coca-Cola that pitted the same two shops (along with WPP's MEC) for the
client's $1 billion media agency assignment in China. Starcom, the Coke incumbent, prevailed.
Late last year, L'Oreal conducted a review of its $1 billion media account in China. When the dust
settled, Mindshare came up with the win, unseating incumbent Optimedia.
According to sources, the P&G pitch covered all traditional and digital planning and buying duties for Singapore,
Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.
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The size of those pitches are huge by U.S. standards and enormous by Asian standards, where overall spending is less but growing faster. Indeed, the
Asia-Pacific region has been one of the faster-growing ad economies in the world, according to recent forecasts and agencies have been ramping up their operations in the region to take advantage of
the growth.
ZenithOptimedia predicted earlier this month that the Asia-Pacific region's ad expenditures would grow 6% to $123 billion this year, and grow another 8% in 2012 to $133 billion,
which is about half the size of the U.S. market.
P&G, the largest U.S. advertiser, is also the biggest ad spender in China, where, according to CTR Market Research, it spent $5 billion last
year in China alone. Ad spending figures for the entire Asia-Pacific region were not immediately available.
The win is a disappointment for SMG but an urgently needed shot in the arm for
MediaCom -- which has struggled lately, particularly in the U.S. market, where last month it lost the $800 million planning and buying assignment for Warner Bros. to Omnicom Media Group without a
formal review.
The agencies declined to comment on the P&G win or referred calls to the client, and officials at the packaged goods giant could not be immediately reached at deadline.