Publicis boss Arthur Sadoun said a while back that his company was increasingly winning business without a pitch and he’s been as good as his word, now landing Pepsi’s $1.7bn global media business in the midst of a pitch for Coca-Cola’s global account.
Publicis won Coke’s North America media business from WPP last year and the two were pitching for global plus other bits and pieces with Publicis warm favourite. There’s been no reaction from Coke to the Pepsi move so far but even the silver-tongued Sadoun would find persuading them both to stay in Publicis a stretch.
Publicis’ array of tech-based businesses was surely a factor in the surprise move. Big global advertisers are suffering a bad dose of FOMO – fear of missing out – as they wait for AI to transform their businesses. It will be interesting to see if Coke now adds Omnicom to its global media pitch list. Otherwise Sadoun may have done his struggling rival WPP a big favour.
