Mixed news for WPP’s embattled media agencies this week: Morrisons has quit Wavemaker (formerly MEC) after 30 years but Weetabix has renewed with Mindshare after a closed pitch. Morrisons is moving to Publicis Groupe’s Zenith, media moves between the two ad holding groups have been pretty much one-way recently. Publicis-owned Leo handles Morrisons creative.
Photo: © John Millard/UNP.
WPP is currently restructuring its GroupM trio of media agencies (the other is EssenceMediacom) into WPP Media. Dentsu’s iProspect also pitched for the £60m Morrisons business in an Aperto Partnership ptich.
Morrisons says: “All the shortlisted agencies showed up very well and responded to the brief with exciting and quite different routes into our business opportunities and challenges. We are now pleased to be appointing Zenith – the strength of their technology capabilities were clear and we’re excited about putting these to work for Morrisons as we continue to build a stronger, more customer-focused business.”
Update
Publicis Media has also won PayPal’s global media account, also formerly handled by WPP.
PayPal says: “We recently completed an agency partner review for global media and have appointed Publicis as our new global media agency partner. This PayPal-led process was shaped by our ambition to modernize how we go to market and align with a partner that reflects where we’re headed as a brand. We appreciate the time, thinking, and energy from all the agencies that participated. We’re excited about what comes next.”
WPP said in April it had resigned the business.
