Mediavest loses BGL as trend for value pots drains business South
Mediavest’s loss of their BGL Group media planning and buying account – understood to be worth £30million to the Manchester group - may see Mediavest’s turnover drop below the £200million barrier, which it had only recently broken through.
BGL, which operates brands such as Budget Insurance, comparethemarket.com and Dial Direct, has appointed ZenithOptimedia, itself part of the Publicis multinational communications agency, ahead of Mindshare, Carat and PHD.
The drain of the business to Zenith continues the trend of business drifting from the UK regions towards the M25 conurbation. As reported in The Drum last month, regional business is gravitating towards London as a result of so called value pots, where agencies affiliate with large agency network buying groups, such as GroupM, Aegis Media, and Magna global, all direct competitors of ZenithOptimedia. The association sees them enter into group trading arrangements which allow a more competitive price to be offered to the ultimate client, pushing rates downward in the hope or expectation that a lucrative deal can be tagged on during the client relationship.
Mediavest, which also recently lost its EUI contract to Mindshare in London, had counted the BGL business as one of its biggest single accounts.