Reckitt Benckiser has named four shops to handle its global media-planning and -buying account following a review, the company said, including Aegis in the US, which replaces Publicis Groupe’sZenithOptimedia.
Publicis remains on the global RB roster along with fellow incumbent Havas and newcomers IPG Mediabrands and Aegis. RB reported it spent $1.8 billion last year on “brand equity investment,” a more-inclusive measure of media spending that also incorporates the costs of creating owned and earned media such as branded content, public relations and corporate websites.
In a statement, Heather Allen, RB’s executive VP-global category development said, “We were delighted with the quality of the proposals we received from both our existing partners and the new ones.” The company markets such brands as Lysol, Air Wick, Mucinex and Durex.
The review came four years after the company’s last global media review, which named Publicis Groupe’s Zenith and Havas Media Group.
It’s among the first major reviews to be conducted since the announcement of the Publicis Groupe-Omnicom merger. And while it’s not clear that figured in the decision, and RB didn’t disclose how fees would be split, the merger didn’t appear to help Publicis, which exits the U.S. business and will now split the RB global work four ways rather than two.
Interpublic and Aegis came in the big winners, as Havas will now also see its shares of RB business globally divided with more agencies now. Havas also stands to potentially lose work on the global Finish, Air Wick and Clearasil accounts where it’s the incumbent in a global creative review called by RB last week.
To avoid a conflict with Carat‘s Procter & Gamble client, Team Aegis, consisting of employees from the Carat, Vizeum, Aegis and iProspect, will be housed in Vizeum’s office in New York’s Times Square. Carat’s offices are in Midtown East.
The media review came only months after Unilever veteran Richard Davies was named RB’s director-global media in April. He’d also had experience working for WPP‘s Mindshare and Interpublic’s Initiative.
