Omnicom’s CEO John Wren gives the group’s view on the 'unprecedented' wave of brand media reviews

Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble and Volkswagen are among a flurry of more than 20 big-spending advertisers to put their media accounts up for review since the turn of the year, amounting to almost $26bn in budgets up for grabs. Experts have pointed to the potential efficiency gains to be had from shifting strategies around automated advertising as the key reason for the glut of reviews, a view backed by Wren.

He added that many of the reviews are "strategic revaluations" of agency suppliers. Omnicom currently shares some of its accounts with its rivals and Wren estimates it could benefit from a £1bn uplift should the holding group prove successful in its attempts to win and retain work.

"Technology has radically changed media planning and buying and the rise of digital data and analytics has given marketers the ability to more precisely understand how consumers are using media," he added. "In areas such as programmatic buying and micro-targeting clients want to make sure that they have the right partner with the right resources in this space."

The group recently won Unilever's Australia media business off the back of its win of the FMCG giant's global search account and has also won Bacardi and cleaning supply company S.C Johnson.

Wren revealed that the group has eschewed pitches from 21st Century Fox, City Bank, Coca-Cola, Cody and L’Oreal.

Elsewhere, Omnicom is continuing to invest in analytics and data to strengthen its data management division Annalect, whose programmatic trading arm Accuen pulled in $30m revenue during the second quarter.

Organic revenue for the company was up 5.9 per cent in North America, 5.4 per cent in the UK, 3.9 per cent in Europe, and 7.6 per cent in APAC.