Mondelez Selects WPP, Publicis Groupe As Primary Creative Partners

After an extensive global holding company pitch, Mondelez International has selected teams from WPP and Publicis Groupe to be the lead creative partners on its nearly $1.2 billion advertising account.

But Interpublic’s The Martin Agency also retained a key piece of business as creative agency on the iconic Oreo account. It will also work on Ritz in the U.S.

The pitch brief tasked participants with designing the “agency model of the future” by assembling the best talent and capabilities across respective holding companies.

Mondelez issued a statement confirming the new arrangement — which is officially effective Sept. 1, but which will be phased in as practicable over the next year.

The company said the new model “aims for deeper, more streamlined relationships with our agencies so we can drive our agenda forward with consistency and maximum creativity, whilst operating at speed. As part of this move, we’re concentrating our global and local creative work with two major holding companies, WPP led by Ogilvy and Publicis, and a limited number of local “guest” specialist agencies in our key markets to access emerging or specialized capabilities.

"These partners will handle creative work for each of our nine global brands, as well as our local jewel brands on a category basis.”

In addition to Ogilvy, WPP’s team includes David and Nordic agency Ingo and a closer working relationship with Wavemaker, which won a big chunk of the Mondelez media assignment last year.

According to an internal memo describing WPP’s new remit, its model will “flex and expand as we continue to optimize and tailor the final solution with Mondelez. Our new assignments include the global chocolate, candy and cheese categories and other opportunities currently being finalized.”

Publicis Groupe will serve as global creative partner for two of the food giant’s core categories, Biscuits and Gum, which includes the category's top-selling Trident.

"Thanks to our ability to bring together creative, media and technology, to drive personalized creative experiences at scale, we were able to demonstrate that Digitas, powered by the group, was the right partner for the next step in their journey,” Publicis Groupe CEO Arthur Sadoun wrote in a memo outlining the Groupe’s new assignment.

Mondelez stated: “We’re continuing to evolve our marketing approach to be more consumer-centric, purpose-driven and digitally-enabled than ever before. Over the past year, we’ve focused on improving our understanding of consumer behaviors, driving a consistent way of marketing our brands, improving our digital ROI and creating a new engagement model for our media and creative agencies that is agile and accelerates our digital journey.”

Martin Renaud, Chief Marketing Officer, Mondelez International, said with the new agency model “we’re creating the basis for deeper strategic partnerships that give our local and global brand teams access to the best talent and best creative minds. By sharing best practices and leveraging data and insights more effectively, our partners will be in a better position to deliver winning creative and digital solutions, with speed, to our global and local business teams.”

—with reporting by Larissa Faw

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