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Y&R Walks Away With $25 Mil.+ Palm Global Biz After ReviewNEW YORK Palm on Friday shifted its global ad account from AKQA to Young & Rubicam after a review. The business includes traditional advertising, direct and interactive marketing and media planning and buying, which WPP's Y&R in San Francisco will provide with help from sister shops such as Wunderman. Global spending is estimated at $25 million. In the U.S. last year, Palm, marketer of Palm Treo "smart phones," spent nearly $15 million in measured media, according to TNS Media Intelligence. The review also involved AKQA and a handful of undisclosed shops, said sources. AKQA, an independent shop in San Francisco, had handled the brand since 1999.Acatel Lucent Hands $100 Mil+ Rebranding Task to Euro RSCGNEW YORK Alcatel, which is still awaiting approval of its acquisition of Lucent Technologies, awarded the global rebranding of Alcatel Lucent to Euro RSCG last week after a review, sources said. The projected spend on the assignment is upwards of $100 million. There is no record of media spending for either company beyond 2001, when Alcatel spent $20 million on U.S. ads and Lucent spent $50 million, per TNS Media Intelligence. Alcatel created a stir with its advertising five years ago when Havas' Arnold in Boston created a campaign using the voices and likenesses of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Lou Gehrig. That agency parted ways with the client several years ago. Wal-Mart Tests Pitch Ideas In $570 Mil. ReviewNEW YORK Wal-Mart is testing ideas that four agency teams pitched last week in its review of creative, media and interactive duties on its estimated $570 million account, sources said. A decision is expected next week. Final presentations took place Oct. 9 and 10 at the client's headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., with two agencies pitching each day. Omnicom's GSD&M, an incumbent creative shop in Austin, Texas, went first, followed by IPG's The Martin Agency in Richmond, Va., IPG's DraftFCB in Chicago and WPP's Ogilvy & Mather in New York, said sources. The shops declined comment. Select Resources International in Santa Monica, Calif., is managing the search.Decision Looms in $50 Mil. Priceline Creative ReviewNEW YORK Priceline.com is expected to select a creative agency as early as this week after the last of five contenders pitches ideas to about a half-dozen client executives at the company's headquarters in Norwalk, Conn., sources said. Sources identified the finalists as MDC's Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners in New York, independents Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners in Sausalito, Calif., and The Brooklyn Brothers in New York, IPG's Mullen in Wenham, Mass., and the incumbent, IPG's Gotham in New York. Media duties, at independent Ocean Media in Huntington Beach, Calif., are not in play. Priceline spent about $35 million in major measured media in the first seven months of 2006 and nearly $50 million last year, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus.Incumbent Sells Creative Idea To Pizza Hut, Fends Off OgilvyNEW YORK BBDO last week fought off a challenge by WPP's Ogilvy & Mather for a creative assignment on Pizza Hut, sources said. The Yum! Brands client bought concepts from the Omnicom agency, which has handled the estimated $250 million U.S. account since 1987. The solicitation of ideas was driven by frustrated franchisees of the pizza restaurant chain, which has seen seven straight quarters of declining sales, according to sources. The Dallas client declined to comment. WPP's Mediaedge:cia handles media for all brands under the Yum! banner.Anheuser-Busch Moves Lachky To Marketing PositionCHICAGO Anheuser-Busch's former advertising chief and current evp of industry development Bob Lachky is returning to the marketing department to lead the creative output from the brewer and its agencies. Lachky, who for the past year has been promoting the beer industry on behalf of A-B, will manage advertising and agency relations.

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