Publicis Media wins major Fiat Chrysler and Mars media accounts
Publicis Media is understood to have won the Fiat Chrysler media account through Starcom, while a joint effort between Starcom and Zenith has also picked up and retained the global media account for Mars, outside of Australia and New Zealand.
Fiat Chrysler
The Drum has learned that both accounts have been won by the media division of Publicis Groupe in the last week, with Fiat Chrysler tasking Starcom with handling its media across APAC, China and Europe, beating incumbent Maxus in the process.
It is believed that the value of the Fiat Chrysler media account is somewhere in the region of €600m.
Meanwhile, the Mars win saw the Publicis agencies beat WPP and Omnicom, although Mediacom has reportedly won the contract in Australia and New Zealand where it was previously held by Starcom.
The Mars account has been held by Zenith in the UK for over 20 years now.
The Fiat Chrysler win will more than offset the loss of another automotive client, Toyota by Zenith and Saatchi & Saatchi in November, when the account was handed to The & Partnership. Meanwhile, it was also revealed earlier this week that Publicis Comms agency Leo Burnett, was named global agency of record by Jim Beam.
At the time of writing no one from either brand nor Publicis had responded to The Drum's approaches for comment.
Updated
A Mars spokesperson commented: "To ensure that we have the strongest possible media-buying agencies supporting our business objectives around the world, Mars, Incorporated marketing teams in seven key markets—Australia/New Zealand, China, Germany, India, Japan, Southeast Asia and the U.K.—conducted concurrent media-buying agency pitches this fall. Our teams evaluated each agency proposal on both qualitative and quantitative criteria. After thorough analysis of each agency’s proposals at local and global levels, Mars is excited to announce the following assignments:
o Starcom retains China, Southeast Asia and the U.K. and wins India and Germany
o Mediacom wins Australia and New Zealand
"Local buying agency transitions will begin immediately and will impact our 2017 media investments.
"We’re delighted to continue our partnerships with both Mediacom and Starcom as we continue to drive performance and innovation through our media agenda."