• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, October 7, 2018

Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline has awarded its global media assignment to Publicis Media, sources have confirmed.

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. 

The company reported spending £1.35 billion (about $1.8 billion) on advertising in 2017, per its annual report for that year. 

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 behavior, so we can reach them with the right advertising at the appropriate time.” 

ID Comms managed the review process.

Adweek first broke the news of the Publicis selection.