Amazon reviews global media account

Amazon is reviewing its global media planning and buying business.

The ecommerce group has worked with the incumbent, Interpublic Group's Initiative, for the past decade.

The news was broken by Marketing Brew. Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser provided Campaign with a statement. He said: “As part of our regular course of business, we routinely review existing business relationships with third-party vendors and partners, and based on those reviews, may decide to solicit proposals from vendors interested in working with us. We look forward to the proposal process in this case and will evaluate the right next steps for our businesses once we’ve reviewed submissions.” 

In its 2022 full-year results, the retail, technology and entertainment giant reported it spent $20.6bn (£16.9bn) on advertising and promotional costs in 2022, up from $16.9bn in 2021 and more than double its 2020 spend, at $10.9bn.

Initiative successfully defended its hold on the global account in 2017, beating Publicis Media in a final round. It originally won Amazon's global media in 2013 from then-incumbent Group M's Mindshare and Mediacom.

Earlier this year, Campaign reported that IPG's Mediahub was set to win Netflix's UK media planning and buying account. But ultimately, the agency had to turn down the business due to a client conflict, understood to be Amazon. Dentsu ended up being awarded the account.

On its creative account, Amazon works with a number of agencies and last month added Omnicom's Adam & Eve/DDB to its European roster. It already worked with a number of UK-based agencies, including Wieden & Kennedy London, Lucky Generals, Droga5 London and Joint.

Campaign contacted IPG for comment.