Mondelez hires MediaMonks and Publicis Groupe for worldwide content production

Mondelez International has awarded its global content production and management account to MediaMonks and Publicis Groupe after a competitive pitch to consolidate the business.

MediaMonks, part of Sir Martin Sorrell's S4 Capital, will manage the confectionery and snack food group's global tech infrastructure, global websites and content production for North America, Latin America, Asia, the Middle-East and Africa.

A bespoke Publicis team, called Team Pop, will work on content for European audiences. This covers 32 markets including the UK, France, Germany and Italy. 

It is thought that WPP, Accenture and TAG were also involved in the pitch process.

However, the companies and Mondelez did not comment on this.

A Mondelez spokesman told Campaign it has previously worked with "a wide range of agencies in more local and regional capacities", prior to the consolidation.

The owner of brands such as Cadbury, Oreo, Philadelphia, Ritz and Trident is one of the world's largest advertisers, spending $1.21bn (£900m) on advertising expense in 2019.

Mondelez has introduced a new model for its content production which it said will allow "more agile content that connects the best in creativity, media and technology to rapidly design, create, and manage personalised experiences across any touchpoint throughout the customer journey".

For MediaMonks and Publicis, this means creating a "higher volume of quality content made for personalisation" and deploying these assets in "a more efficient and consistent" way.

Digital content production is an increasingly important battleground for some of the big agency groups and consulting companies as clients want to produce higher volumes of fast-turnaround digital assets.

Martin Renaud, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Mondelez International, said: "Following the selection of our media and creative agencies in 2018 and 2019, we are pleased to announce a new model for our global content production and management agencies.

"Our production partners will provide a simple and agile new solution that offers the best in terms of creativity, media capabilities and technology for our portfolio of global and local brands."

The agencies will begin working on the account immediately with phased transitions starting in January 2021, which should be finalised at the end of next year.

Meghan Johnson, agency eco-system leader at Mondelez International, added: "We have been nothing but impressed by the evolved capabilities agency partners are bringing to the table.

"The production model we have designed enables key strategic initiatives, while scaling rich taste appeal and delivering content fit for platform and purpose. For Mondelez International, this is a new way of leveraging data and capabilities at scale, only realised through strong partnerships across our agency ecosystem."

Last year, Mondelez consolidated its media and creative business into Publicis Groupe and WPP.

Advertising expense was $1.21bn in 2019 compared to $1.17bn in 2018 and $1.25bn in 2017, according to Mondelez's annual report.