Unilever announces result of global media review with six rivals sharing duties

Unilever has reappointed WPP’s Mindshare to its media account in the US, UK and China but has shaken up its agency arrangements in a number of other markets, including Canada and parts of Southeast Asia.

The FMCG giant has appointed a roster of agencies, including all of the six holding companies, across different geographies.

Unilever has tended to use three main groups, WPP, Omnicom and Interpublic, for media-buying globally in the recent past but added Havas to the roster in 2021 and now, in a further shift, Publicis Groupe and Dentsu have won duties.

In Asia, only six Southeast Asian markets went to pitch: Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore. Publicis has been appointed to five out of these six markets, while Mindshare held onto the Unilever media business in Indonesia. Campaign understands from sources close to the reviews that IPG, Publicis and incumbent Mindshare were the media agency finalists involved in the review.

Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), Japan, and South Asia (including Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan) are understood to have remained with the incumbents. Mindshare continues to hold the account in China (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan) and across South Asia, while Omnicom retains the account for Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Key changes in the 2024 review include:

• Publicis Media has won the media account in five markets in south-east Asia, including picking up Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam from WPP.
• Interpublic’s Initiative has won Canada from Omnicom Media Group.
• WPP has won Sub-Saharan Africa, including picking up South Africa from Omnicom Media Group.

The FMCG giant launched the review of its media planning and buying account in January.

The competitive process was “in line with Unilever’s standard practice of reviewing agency partners periodically” and was designed “to ensure best-in-class support in a competitive and dynamic media landscape, aligned to Unilever’s Growth Action Plan”, the company said.

PwC’s media practice, now part of MediaSense, supported Unilever on the review.

Esi Eggleston Bracey, chief growth and marketing officer at Unilever, said:  “Thank you to everyone who took part in this process as we prepare for the next generation of marketing. 

“It’s fantastic to accelerate this journey with both new and long-time partners. Together, we have an exciting opportunity to further optimise our media and content to better reflect people and culture as we continue to build our brands and drive to commerce.” 

WPP hailed the Unilever result. In an internal memo, seen by Campaign, Mark Read, the WPP chief executive, told staff it “has grown its overall business” with the FMCG client.

Read said WPP expanded its US remit by adding an integrated shopper marketing brief, “which was previously held by Publicis”, as part of a consolidation with the media account, plus it won 13 new markets in sub-Saharan Africa.

Unilever, which owns the Dove, Ben & Jerry's and Marmite brands, last reviewed its media account in 2021.

At that time GroupM’s Mindshare retained most of Unilever’s media business across its top markets, including the US and UK.

Unilever is one of the world’s biggest advertisers, spending €8.55 billion ($9.5 billion) on its brand and marketing investment in 2023, up from €7.82 billion ($8.7 billion) a year earlier.

The company stepped up investment in BMI in the first half of 2024 but told investors it expects to incur higher restructuring costs across the business in the second half amid 'tighter cost control'.

The full roster split is as follows:

Mindshare (WPP) 

Australia and New Zealand 

Central Eastern Europe 

China (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan) 

Indonesia 

Italy 

Netherlands and Belgium 

Nordics 

North America  

South Asia including Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka  

Sub-Saharan Africa   

UK and Ireland 

OMG (Omnicom Group) 

Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates 

Germany, Austria and Switzerland 

China: Hong Kong and Taiwan  

Turkey 

Initiative (Interpublic Group) 

Canada 

Greece 

Latin America including Argentina, Brazil and Mexico 

North Africa 

Ukraine   

Havas Media (Havas) 

France 

Spain  

Publicis Media (Publicis Groupe) 

Malaysia

Philippines

Singapore

Thailand

Vietnam

Dentsu 

Japan 

*Editor's note: This story has been revised by the Campaign Asia team to reflect the latest developments and updates.