• by Larissa Faw , March 28, 2019

NBCUniversal (NBCU) is awarding media planning and buying duties for the company's NBC Entertainment and Syndication businesses to Publicis Media’s Spark Foundry after a competitive review.

The incumbent defending the account was WPP's Essence, which will continue to manage the majority of the NBCU media account, including the company’s cable, owned TV stations, and film studio assignments.

NBCU annually spends more than $1 billion in paid media across numerous divisions in the U.S., with NBC media ad spend totaling $233 million in 2017, according to Kantar Media. 

Spark Foundry will service the account out of the agency’s New York and Los Angeles offices.

The new assignment is the second win for the agency this month.

Earlier, it was awarded global media duties for leather goods and accessory brand MCM Worldwide.