- Andrew McMains

Final presentations are slated for late November in a review of global creative duties on Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, sources said. Revenue on the account is estimated at $4-5 million.

Sources identified the finalists as Interpublic Group's McCann Erickson in New York, Omnicom Group's DDB in Chicago, WPP Group's JWT in New York and the Publicis Groupe team of Fallon in Minneapolis and Saatchi & Saatchi in New York.

Since 1996, Fallon has handled the hotel brand in the U.S., though earlier this year, McCann produced a campaign tied to the hotel's sponsorship of sports properties such as Nascar and Major League Baseball. Holiday Inn parent company Intercontinental Hotel Group employs McCann in the U.K. and DDB in Asia.

Joanne Davis Consulting in New York is said to be managing the review. Davis did not return messages and the client, whose U.S operation is based in Atlanta, could not immediately be reached.

Media duties are not in play and remain at WPP's Mindshare in New York, which handles global media chores on all Intercontinental brands. The others include Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites and Intercontinental.

In the U.S alone, major media spending on Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express totaled $60 million last year and nearly $20 million in the first eight months of 2009, according to Nielsen. Those figures don't include online spending.