- Andrew McMains

The short list of agencies in Intercontinental Hotel Group's review of global creative duties for its Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express brands has gotten shorter.

The Publicis Groupe team of Fallon in Minneapolis and Saatchi & Saatchi in New York has exited, leaving three finalists that sources previously identified as Interpublic Group's McCann Erickson in New York, Omnicom Group's DDB in Chicago and WPP Group's JWT in New York. Account revenue is estimated at $4-5 million.

The Fallon-Saatchi exit comes just a few week before final presentations and spells the end of Fallon's long tenure with the client. "We at Fallon are very proud of the work we have done on Holiday inn, Holiday Inn Express and Crowne Plaza over the past 13 years and wish IHG every success going forward," agency CEO Chris Foster said.

Despite the long Fallon-IHG relationship, McCann earlier this year produced a U.S. campaign tied to the hotel's sponsorship of sports properties such as Nascar and Major League Baseball. Holiday Inn parent IHG employs McCann in the U.K. and DDB in Asia.

Joanne Davis Consulting in New York is managing the review, which IHG confirmed today in a statement from chief marketing officer Tom Seddon. "We initiated a global supplier review . . . to focus on getting the best innovation, service and value from our agencies," Seddon said.

IHG could not immediately be reached on the Fallon-Saatchi exit.

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.