• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, May 8, 2018

Pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline has launched a global media agency review, according to sources. 

According to its 2017 annual report, the company spent a total of more than 1.35 billion British pounds (about $1.8 billion) on advertising last year. 

The firm’s last global media review was in 2015. when it divided the assignment between incumbents Mediacom and Mindshare (both parts of WPP’s GroupM) and Omnicom Media Group’s PHD.  It reviews its media account every three years. 

Last year the firm struck two major deals with tech giants — Google and Alibaba — to improve the efficiency of its digital ad spending. 

Per its annual report: “In 2017, we signed a partnership with Google, to bring our digital advertising data platform in-house, enabling us to better target relevant content to consumers and drive efficiency in our marketing campaigns.” 

“We formed another partnership in 2017 with Alimama, the marketing and media arm of Chinese technology group Alibaba. This partnership helps us identify more potential consumers and gain deeper understanding of their online shopping behaviour so we can reach them with the right advertising at the appropriate time.” 

GSK did not respond to a query for comment by deadline. 

ID Comms has been retained by the client to help manage the review process.