Brand MarketingAmEx Taps MindShare for $375 Mil. AccountBy Sandy Brown |March 30, 2004ShareBy Sandy Brown |March 30, 2004ShareNEW YORK American Express has named incumbent MindShare for media chores on its $375 million-plus ad account, a client representative confirmed on Tuesday.The win comes after a review in which WPP Group’s MindShare competed against Interpublic Group’s Initiative and Aegis Group’s Carat.MindShare sister shop Ogilvy & Mather in New York is the lead creative agency on the account. MindShare and its precursor, O&M’s media department, have held AmEx media for 40 years.The client decided to put its media business in review last December, shortly after the departure of Steve Lanzano. In May 2003, MindShare named Lanzano, then North American chief executive at sister network Mediaedge:cia, to lead the AmEx account. By September, he had left to head up U.S. operations for Havas’ MPG.The review excluded AmEx’s media duties in the U.K., Japan, and Italy, which are respectively handled by Aegis Group’s Carat, Dentsu and Publicis Groupe’s Zenith Media. Adweek Adweek