Coca-Cola Picks Three WPP Shops for Next Global Campaign

By Erik Oster 

Ogilvy reportedly tried to “muscle in” on Coca-Cola’s recent media agency review, which went to IPG’s UM. They didn’t win that one, but WPP should be very happy with the results of the subsequent global creative review, which saw Coca-Cola select three WPP agencies out of the 10 roster shops pitching to be assigned the “Open Happiness” follow-up: Ogilvy New York, Madrid-based Sra Rushmore and Santo in Buenos Aires. The brand spent an estimated $406 million in the U.S. alone last year, according to Kantar Media.

Ogilvy beat out other North American shops David and W+K Portland, who will remain on Coke’s roster and “contribute to the final pool of work,” along with other agencies that weren’t selected. W+K launched “Open Happiness” for the brand back in 2009 and created the 60-second “#MakeItHappy” as Coke’s Super Bowl entry in February. The review followed the appointment of Marcos de Quinto as Coca-Cola’s new chief marketing officer, announced last October–and its results seem to solidify a shift towards Ogilvy as the brand’s preferred agency partner.

The implication is that Coke wasn’t so into Wieden’s anti-trolling campaign.

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“We set out in this process with the goal of uncovering the best ideas and marrying those to executional excellence, anticipating that they may come from different sources,” Coca-Cola said in a statement. “The outcome is that we will be moving forward with a networked agency approach, partnering with three of the 10 agencies in the initial stages to create the first round of creative work for Coca-Cola.”

It is unclear if and when Coca-Cola is phasing out its “Open Happiness” campaign, as the brand declined to comment on the matter to AdAge.

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