• by Joe Mandese , October 5, 2005

Just days after joining the Procter & Gamble roster of agencies, WPP Group's MindShare has lost the $800 million global media planning and buying account for Gillette. The move follows the closing of P&G's $57 billion acquisition of Gillette, which formalized a conflict within P&G's roster. MindShare is the long-time media shop of Unilever, one of the P&G's chief rivals.

To resolve the conflict, P&G has reassigned the media account in the U.S. to its primary media agency, Starcom MediaVest Group, and split up its overseas media assignments across local media shops including Publicis' SMG and Zenith Media units, as well as WPP's MediaCom unit. The fact that MediaCom--a long-time P&G agency that WPP acquired last year as part of its buyout of parent Grey Global--doesn't represent a direct conflict for P&G likely is an encouraging sign for WPP, as well as other agency holding companies that are expanding, and differentiating their media network holdings in the hopes of competing for and retaining potentially conflicting accounts.

WPP, for example, now operates four global media networks--MindShare, MediaCom, Mediaedge:cia, and Maxus--while all of the majors with the exception of Havas manage at least two.

Recently, the major holding companies have begun formalizing corporate-level media units to oversee and manage resources, new business, and potential conflicts across their media networks. Omnicom recently restructured the Omnicom Media Group, promoting OMD CEO Joe Uva to president, while Interpublic hired former MTV Networks biggie Mark Rosenthal to restructure its holdings, which include FCB Media, Magna Global, Initiative, and Universal McCann. Publicis has created Publicis Groupe Media, a corporate-level unit that operates by committee, though it has begun creating centralized functions related to digital and interactive media and other areas.

Although it was expected, the loss of Gillette's business must comes as a blow to Group M chief Irwin Gotlieb, taking the unit's market clout down considerably at a time when others appear to be bulking up.

The Federal Trade Commission approved P&G's acquisition of Gillette on Sept. 30, pending the sale of its Right Guard deodorant, Rembrandt teeth whitening, and Crest SpinBrush toothbrush brands.