The 10 Biggest Creative and Media Account Changes of 2021

Plenty of accounts changed hands over the past year as brands looked to invigorate their creative outputs. In fact, a few multibillion-dollar accounts highlighted the year's moves, several of which came after long runs with previous agencies. Consolidation helped nail the wins for several big accounts, as Coca-Cola, Mercedes and Home Depot all aligned media and creative with a single holding company. Here are some of the biggest account changes we saw in 2021: Coca-Cola Previous agency: Multiple, including Starcom, UM and Carat.New agency: WPPSize of account: The Coca-Cola Company spent $2.78 billion on advertising in 2020, down from $4.25 billion in 2019 and $4.11 billion in 2018, according to its annual reports.Why it's significant: The biggest global review of the year involved the beverage giant, which announced the contract was up for review in December 2020. What was originally announced as two reviews, separating out creative and media, was later combined into one about seven months into the review. After a lengthy review process that included IPG, Dentsu, WPP and Publicis Groupe, WPP was chosen as the global marketing partner for Coca-Cola. The holding company is now tasked with ensuring growth of the company’s brand portfolio. About one-third of the company's creative work will be done by a strategic roster of agency partners made up of non-WPP agencies. Under the banner of OpenX, WPP will take on the role of global marketing network partner across creative and media in more than 200 countries and territories. Coca-Cola will also centralize all of its data and production within the holding company. Work for Coca-Cola will be spread throughout the WPP roster, with key agencies working on creative to include Ogilvy, Wunderman Thompson and MediaCom. After announcing that the brand would reduce the number of brands in its portfolio by half in October 2020, Coca-Cola also decided to streamline the number of agencies that have been working with the company, which it deemed unmanageable. Mercedes-Benz Previous agency: Publicis GroupeNew agency: Consolidated global media and brand and performance marketing with Omnicom Group.Size of account: According to COMvergence, Mercedes-Benz spent $893 million on measured media in 2020.Why it's significant: Omnicom created Team X, a dedicated unit that handles all facets of the brand’s global communications, including creative, CRM, media, digital and more across all 45 markets. Omnicom acquired two agencies as part of the win: antoni, a Berlin-based digital shop, and OSK, a German PR and communications agency. Omnicom held creative in the U.S through Merkley+Partners and in China with BBDO. Publicis previously held the digital arm of Mercedes’ business with a dedicated unit, Emil. Antoni worked on the brand’s European creative, while OSK handled the brand’s global PR. The consolidation into one holding company allows Mercedes-Benz to deliver a data-driven, personalized and seamless brand experience for customers at all touchpoints worldwide, according to the brand. It also changes the way that Omnicom will measure success, since it will hold all the data with the brand. Dunkin’ Previous agency: BBDONew agency: AnomalySize of account: In 2020, Dunkin’s U.S. ad spend was roughly $442 million.Why it's significant: The breakfast and coffee brand has gone through many changes over the last several years, including dropping “Donuts” from its name, so the change to Anomaly could mark a significant new creative direction. Anomaly will lead overall creative strategy and development for Dunkin’, and the agency will have direct responsibility for national broadcast, digital video and audio, social and out-of-home advertising development. Anomaly’s initial work is expected to debut in 2022. BBDO was the creative agency partner of Dunkin’ for three years. Before that, Hill Holiday held the account for two decades. Anomaly now adds to a roster that already features Arc, Dieste, The Lacek Group, Turner Duckworth, Publicis Media and MSL. Publicis was named media agency of record in February of this year. Home Depot Previous agency: The Richards GroupNew agency: BBDOSize of account: The media account is worth more than $202 million.Why it's significant: The Richards Group famously lost this big account last year after insensitive remarks by agency founder Stan Richards. That led to a media and creative review, with the media going to Omnicom’s OMD in January and the creative falling to Omnicom’s BBDO in April. The appointment consolidated the home improvement chain’s creative and media accounts in the U.S. with Omnicom. Hill Holliday and Leo Burnett were the other finalists in the review process, according to sources with knowledge of the account. The final decision came down to BBDO and Hill Holliday. The win for BBDO and Omnicom is significant in that it took big business from the Richards Group at a time it could ill afford to lose business during the pandemic. The home improvement stores also saw a spike in sales during a time when many people sought to do home projects. Sales at Home Depot were up nearly 20% in 2020 over 2019, and those numbers are expected to remain high in 2021. Meta/Facebook Previous agency: MindshareNew agency: Spark FoundrySize of account: $701 million between July 2020 and June 2021, (not including spend Meta handles directly), according to COMvergence.Why it's significant: In November, Facebook awarded its media business to Publicis Groupe's Spark Foundry after putting the account into review in March. The review, led by R3, initially included Publicis Groupe, Havas and incumbents WPP and Dentsu. WPP's Mindshare pulled out of the review. The announcement was significant coming on the heels of Facebook's rebrand as Meta, indicating that the new media partner could play a key role in shaping Meta's branding going forward. Some industry experts cited changing audit rights were behind GroupM's exit from the review process, and flagged there could be possible conflicts of interest for the winning agency. "The benefit of the agency working with big platforms and media giants should mean early access and opportunities, but it could also be an albatross that impacts neutrality and independence. Will Publicis propose a media plan without Facebook and Disney [which the agency won in 2019] on it?" wondered R3's Greg Paull in an email to Adweek. Walmart Previous agency: HaworthNew agency: Publicis GroupeSize of account: Total media spend for the brand is $575 million, according to COMvergence.Why it's significant: Walmart consolidated media and creative with Publicis Groupe after selecting Publicis as its new media agency in the U.S. following a review conducted by MediaLink. WPP-backed agency Haworth had handled Walmart's media since 2017. Publicis already managed creative for Walmart prior to the review, after taking the business from The Martin Agency in 2016. Publicis oversees Walmart's media strategy, planning, buying and partnerships, working closely with others on Walmart's agency roster, including Deutsch L.A. and FCB. T-Mobile Previous agency: Horizon Media, Spark Foundry and EssenceNew agency: InitiativeSize of account: Total media spend for the account is $1.2 billion, according to COMvergence.Why it's significant: In 2020, following its merger with Sprint, T-Mobile began a media review and ultimately selected IPG's Initiative as its new media agency. The review, managed by ID Comms, ended T-Mobile's ongoing relationships with independent agency Horizon Media, Publicis Groupe's Spark Foundry and WPP's Essence. All three incumbents were invited to participate in the review, and Publicis Groupe created a bespoke unit for the pitch, led by Publicis Seattle, which handles creative for T-Mobile. It was a finalist in the review process, sources told Adweek. Horizon Media had handled Sprint's media account since 2017, while GroupM had been handing digital media for T-Mobile and helped the brand create an in-housing operation for digital media. Publicis Media's Spark Foundry worked on T-Mobile's offline media planning and buying. Eli Lilly Previous agency: OMDNew agency: ZenithSize of account: $530 million, according to COMvergence.Why it's significant: Zenith won pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly's U.S. media business following a review process that began in June and was managed by MediaLink. Incumbent OMD defended the business and competed with Publicis, WPP and Dentsu. As the pandemic drags on and more health care companies become household names, the health sector may be positioned to spend more on advertising. A Forrester Research analysis of 2020 advertising spend shows the health sector decreased spend by just 17% compared to sectors like media and communications, which was down 35%; automotive, which declined 46%; and travel, which was down 63%. Zenith's win also created disruption in the industry, ending Lily's nearly 20-year relationship with OMD. Some Omnicom agencies retained portions of Eli Lilly's marketing business. Philips Previous agency: Carat, WavemakerNew agency: Consolidated media, creative and communications with Omnicom Group.Size of account: Total media spend for Philips is $250 million, according to COMvergence.Why it's significant: Omnicom Group's agency network services Philips' global account. The agency lineup includes TBWA for creative, OMD for media, and FleishmanHillard and Ketchum for communications. Interbrand, Critical Mass and Omnicom Precision Marketing Group also work on the account. The outcome of the review is significant because it is another example of a brand consolidating most of its services with a single holding company. "Mercedes-Benz (Omnicom), Coca-Cola (WPP) and Philips (Omnicom) might well be harbingers of things to come: huge global assignments all centralized under a single holding company with creative, media, digital and data coming back together," Paull said. Hotels.com and Fruit of the Loom Previous agency: Crispin Porter BoguskyNew agency: Multiple agencies for Hotels.com and GSD&M for Fruit of the Loom.Why it's significant: Crispin Porter Bogusky was a powerhouse creative shop a decade ago, but recent changes at the shop, now called CPB and owned by Stagwell Inc., have seen it lose some major accounts in the last year. After losing Domino’s in 2020, CPB saw two of its biggest clients depart as well: Hotels.com and Fruit of the Loom. Fruit of the Loom named Omnicom agency GSD&M as the creative and media agency in October after a pitch that began in April and also included McCann, FCB and Wieden+Kennedy. Hotels.com has not chosen a creative agency of record, but the Captain Obvious character that was invented by CPB recently showed up in a campaign for Resorts World Las Vegas and Hotels.com by Knoxville agency Tombras. Hotels.com stated that it was working with a number of agency partners. Stagwell CEO Mark Penn stated that the holding company is sticking by CPB and giving the agency the time it needs to move forward.