Market buzzing over rumours of planned Unilever consolidation

Unilever is reportedly planning to consolidate more of its Asia-Pacific media accounts into one agency. Speculation is rife that the FMCG giant is moving in this direction after it decided to consolidate its USdollars 700 million media account in the United States with MindShare (see also story on page 50). The speculation is given added credence following a statement from the president and CEO of Unilever United States Charles Strauss. "Our move to a consolidated media assignment reinforces Unilever's worldwide efforts to simplify and focus its marketing investment for maximum return," he said in the statement. "This consolidated approach will improve productivity for our leading brands." Industry sources said that with the current state of play, MindShare stood poised to be the major beneficiary, as it holds entire Unilever accounts in Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Taiwan. However, they pointed to the Unilever pitch now going on in Thailand, where WPP's MindShare, the incumbent planning agency, is up against Interpublic's Initiative Media, the incumbent buying agency. The sources could not predict which agency would get the upper hand, however, they said that if MindShare won it meant that Unilever was sacrificing Initiative's strong local contacts in favour of building regional clout through one or two media agencies. As in the US, there are no changes likely in the line-up of creative agencies servicing the Unilever account in the region.

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