China is going back to work, 90% of it anyway, and Unilever has been quick out of the blocks, awarding its estimated $500m mainland media account to WPP and its media holding company GroupM. The incumbent was Omnicom’s PHD.
Recently appointed Unilever CEO Alan Jope said he planned to work with ad holding companies – not a universally popular stance in some circles – but WPP has won big here. It presumably didn’t hurt that former Unilever CMO Keith Weed now sits on WPP’s board.
WPP launched a ‘Team Unilever’ in-house partnership with the FMCG giant in Singapore in 2018.
