Another media poser for Publicis as Coke reviews $400m US media account

Coca-Cola is reviewing its $400m US media account according to Ad Age. The business has been with Publicis Groupe’s Starcom MediaVest for 11 years.

Starcom will repitch against WPP’s MediaCom, IPG’s UM and Dentsu Aegis’ Carat. These things are always difficult to foretell, in theory they should be about which agency offers the cheapest prices.

But sometimes the bigger players in the market suffer precisely because they’re so big. Broadcasters and others are reluctant to discount 40 per cent of their inventory to, say, WPP’s GroupM central buying unit while they might do a sweetheart deal with someone smaller.

Dentsu Aegis’ Carat seems to be the best at negotiating this particular minefield. Over the past few years it has successfully invaded the US by nabbing $3bn General Motors and $1bn Microsoft.

Publicis, on the other hand, has lost some of the aforementioned Microsoft business, Anheuser-Busch InBev and Mars work recently. The group may be all a flutter about the success of $3.7bn acquisition Sapient but there still seems work to be done at home.