• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, March 3, 2022

Unilever’s global tea marketing division, known as ekaterra, has launched a global media review.

The review comes amid a sale of ekaterra to CVC Capital Partners for close to $5 billion.

Unilever struck a deal with CVC last fall to sell its tea business which includes brands like Lipton, Pukka, PG Tips, Tazo, T2 and Brooke Bond.

Completion of the transaction is expected in the second half of 2022 and the review process is expected to wrap up in June. As part of Unilever, media buying for the tea division has been handled by WPP media agencies.

The review, which is being managed by ID Comms, will focus on finding a strategic agency partner with a ‘digital first’ mindset to support ekaterra’s media investments and campaigns in more than 50 markets spanning all continents.

In the U.S. ekaterra spends an estimated $42 million on measured media annually on its Lipton, Tazo, and Pure Leaf tea brands, according to agency research firm COMvergence. That includes about $32 million for offline and $10 million for online spending. A global spending estimate was not immediately available.

Aparna Sundaresh, ekaterra’s CMO said, “As a house of purposeful brands with a mission to grow a world of wellbeing, we want to choose an agency partner with a shared passion for our consumers and an appreciation for the role that our brands can play in their lives.”