INTERNATIONAL NEWS: Bristol-Myers drops Zenith for Starcom

The pharmaceuticals giant Bristol-Myers Squibb, the parent of brands including the Clairol range and Mum deodorant, is centralising its global media planning and buying into BCom3's Starcom MediaVest Group. The appointment means that Zenith Media is losing one of its founding clients. The agency handled the account across Europe, where it is estimated to be worth about £30 million (about US$42 million), as well as in the Middle East and Africa. It also worked on the local TV business in the US. Starcom already holds the bulk of the company's media buying business in Asia. Most of Bristol-Myers' US media is conducted in-house and will be unaffected by the review. Manning Gottlieb Media, which handles the media for Bristol-Myers' Aussie Haircare product range in the United Kingdom, also loses out in the centralisation. It is thought that MediaVest will handle the UK account, worth £11 million, to avoid any clashes within Starcom Motive's P&G business, which includes the Vidal Sassoon brand. In the UK, Clairol Herbal Essences and its Daily Defence range accounts for the largest proportion of advertising spend, spending almost £8 million in the 12 months to June, according to ACNielsen MMS. The realignment follows on from Bristol-Myers' decision two years ago to rationalise its global roster of creative agencies, which include FCB and two of the creative agencies within the Bcom3 network, D'Arcy and the Kaplan Thaler Group in New York.

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