Winning all of Coca-Cola’s agency marketing business was one of the few good things to happen to WPP during the end of CEO Mark Read’s reign – but what a business it is to mind.
WPP started off winning everything but them lost North America media to Publicis, probably the most profitable part. Now Coke, which seems painfully addicted to reviews, is holding a shoot-out twixt WPP and Publicis for its media, data and technolgy everywhere except North America (don’t they want to upset Publicis’ Arthur Sadoun?), Japan and Korea where it works with Dentsu. Creative doesn’t seem to included officially although it’s hard to see how it can left out with all this going on.
The ostensible reason for the review, to be handled by Mediasense, is to create a “digital-first marketing operating system for future growth. This includes a shift in mindset from traditional media planning to the emerging ways we need to reach consumers through technology, including agentic tools.” Which might mean anything, or nothing.
One has to feel for newish WPP CEO Cindy Rose and her team who can probably envisage a future in which all they do is repitch for chunks of Coca-Cola.
Back in the day a big, confident agency would have shown a client, even one as big as Coca-Cola, the door over these shenanigans. The same thought may have occurred to Publicis CEO Sadoun unless he’s pretty sure it’s all coming his way. Coke’s use of “agentic” may be a clue.
