UK government confirms Dentsu Aegis media win – and says it’s £100m cheaper than WPP

The UK government announced today (Monday) that it’s moving its media buying account from WPP’s M4C agency to Dentsu Aegis network (which means Carat or yet another ‘bespoke’ agency).

Now we all thought we knew this as the original move was flagged months ago, to be followed by news that WPP was planning to sue UK Gov. because there were ‘procedural errors’ in the pitch process.

Well the UK government is going ahead it seems – we don’t know if WPP’s legal action is still headed for the courts.

But the Cabinet Office statement also says that, with the new Dentsu Aegis arrangements, the Government thinks it can save £100m a year (out of a £400m budget) through tighter spending controls across public sector campaigning and “smarter purchasing.”

Which is quite a lot (25 per cent according to my steam calculator) and worth moving the account for, one would think.

WPP may not take the same view, of course, and may, indeed, challenge this as well.

Should be fun watching this one develop.

(There’s more on this story, including some elucidation about the mysterious £100m, here).