Today brought news that Mondelez has consolidated the majority of its global creative account with Publicis Groupe and WPP, with IPG’s The Martin Agency retaining global lead creative status on Oreo and U.S. lead creative on Ritz (as well as other exceptions for continuing regional partnerships, such as VCCP retaining creative for Cadbury in the U.K.).
In an internal memo announcing the news, Publicis Groupe CEO Arthur Sadoun characterized it as a big win for the holding company, which was awarded the client’s biscuits and gum divisions, with Digitas serving as lead agency network, while apologizing for interrupting any summer vacations with the announcement. How polite!
Sadoun noted that the biscuits divisions was Mondelez’s largest and global category leader Trident was among the brands in the gum division and that the appointment followed a seven month review process that included incumbents WPP and IPG.
“Thanks to our ability to bring together creative, media and technology, to drive personalized creative experiences at scale, we were able to demonstrate that Digitas, powered by the group, was the right partner for the next step in their journey,” he wrote.
He noted that Publicis Groupe had two creative wins over the course of the past few weeks, BT in the U.K. being the other, as well as Novartis consolidating the majority of its global media account with the holding company and LVMH selecting Publicis to handle media responsibilities in Europe.
“Our winning model connecting data, dynamic creativity and technology is without a doubt what all of our clients need,” he concluded. “Let’s make sure we bring it to all of them, with a strong growth mindset for them and us.”
You can read the memo in full below:
Bonjour,
I’m sorry to bother you again over the summer, but when it’s with good news I hope you’ll agree that it’s worth it.
Today I’m pleased to share that we have been named by Mondelez as its global creative partner for two of its core strategic categories : Biscuits, which is their largest division and Gum, including Trident – the global leading brand. This comes after a long, 7 month pitch process including us and their key incumbents – WPP & IPG.
Mondelez was looking for a transformative, integrated agency solution that could help them bring to life their bold ambition to reinvent marketing across their multiple categories and iconic brands around the world. Thanks to our ability to bring together creative, media and technology, to drive personalized creative experiences at scale, we were able to demonstrate that Digitas, powered by the group, was the right partner for the next step in their journey.
As always with global pitches, it’s impossible to individually thank everyone involved. So in addition to saying a big ‘thank you’ to all of the teams who participated, a special ‘merci’ goes to Carla who has lead this pitch, Linda, Taras, and magic Fran.
It is important to note that in the last few weeks, we’ve had two major creative wins, with BT in the UK and now Mondelez globally, and two major media wins, with LVMH in Europe and Novartis globally. To get to all of these victories, we have boosted our creative and media offers through data and technology, to show our clients why and how they should shift to personalized experiences at scale, to accelerate their growth while reducing their costs.
Our winning model connecting data, dynamic creativity and technology is without a doubt what all of our clients need. Let’s make sure we bring it to all of them, with a strong growth mindset for them and for us.
Amitiés,
Arthur