WPP has been handed Amazon’s mammoth media account in APAC and EMEA, with OMG handling it in the Americas.
Amazon has decided to split its account, perhaps the most valuable in all of the adland, after spending the last 11 years with IPG Mediabrands.
The decision had taken Amazon some six months to arrive at, with B&T previously reporting live from Cannes that GroupM — owned by WPP — and Omnicom were in a two-horse race to win its global media account.
Amazon’s media account is the single most lucrative media planning and buying remit in all of adland. According to COMvergence, Amazon’s global paid media spend amounted to about $US4.8 billion ($AU7.14 billion) in 2023 (excluding Audible). Ahead of the review, Initiative/Rufus was handling all brand-driven advertising (including programmatic, IO display, and online video) for a total billing of $2.5 billion ($AU3.72 billion).
“After a comprehensive advertising agency review for our consumer business, we’ve chosen to partner with OMG and WPP,” Amazon spokesperson Margaret Callahan said in a statement to ADWEEK.
“This decision was made after a careful and extensive review process,” Callahan. “We investigated each agency’s marketplace expertise, media planning experience at all levels, media pricing, measurement abilities, and account management in all geographic regions.”
According to Amazon, the decision to move on to new agencies was not a reflection of past work but about choosing what’s best for the company moving forward.
“We appreciate the discussions with of all the world-class agencies we met during our search,” Callahan said.
“We particularly want to thank IPG, who has been a fantastic partner over the last 10+ years, and we’re grateful for all their work and continued partnership for the other significant areas of our advertising business, including AWS, Amazon Ads, and Amazon Business.”
IPG will remain Amazon’s global media partner for Amazon Web Services, Amazon Business, and Amazon Ads.
