Campaign reports that Samsung has put its global creative and media accounts up for review, which hardly comes as a great surprise as the Korean tech giant spends billions worldwide on marketing, $3bn alone on PR according to some accounts.
Samsung uses its one-time in-house agency Cheil for most everyday activities (it still owns a stake in Cheil) and has flitted between various others, most recently 72andSunny in the US for its phones and CHI & Partners in the UK.
72andSunny, one of the bright sparks in the MDC empire along with Anomaly, has produced some much-praised work in the US so it would be a bitter blow to lose Samsung if the company does, indeed, go for one global lead or, more likely, holding company.
WPP once, briefly, got its mitts on Samsung with an early version of its now-routine ‘bespoke’ agencies but the business soon reverted to Cheil. That won’t stop boss Sir Martin Sorrell trying again.
A more likely one-stop solution is likely to be media, currently held mainly by Publicis Groupe’s Starcom MediaVest. Starcom needs to lose another big account like a hole in the head. No doubt WPP’s GroupM collection of media agencies is gearing up for this one too.
