Publicis media agencies clean up on account wins, but is Meta a poisoned chalice?
This week, we consider a string of wins by Publicis agencies Spark Foundry, Boost and Zenith across the tech, CPG and utilities sectors.
Facebook announced its transition to Meta last week. Spark Foundry has won its media account
Among this week’s account wins and losses, it’s hard to ignore Spark Foundry’s win of the Meta media account. The Publicis Groupe firm will be tasked with handling around $750m in media buying on behalf of the newly-rebranded Facebook and Instagram parent company. It’s a considerable war chest for a company that’s only been engaging with marketing efforts in a serious way since circa 2014, and one likely to increase further – Meta boosted its marketing efforts 32% last year alone.
Lisa Stratton, a spokesperson for Meta, told The New York Times that Spark Foundry will be expected to provide “strategic thought leadership, media innovation, planning and investment, cross-channel approaches, tools, tech and operations.”
Sarah Kramer, chief executive of Spark Foundry US, said: “We have a long legacy of leading brands through transformation and look forward to working with Meta on the next evolution of their business.”
However, Spark Foundry’s new client is beset by several potentially existential threats. There’s political heat in the US regarding alleged monopolistic practices, hate speech, vaccine misinformation and the fallout from the Capitol riots; a youth audience emigrating to TikTok and Snapchat; and antsy prestige advertisers such as Patagonia, which has pulled its spend in the light of the former, but also probably the latter, issues.
There’s also the problem that the American public might not actually care all that much about the metaverse, the future technology that founder Mark Zuckerberg is determined to bet the house on despite its dystopian connotations. The latter situation is surely one Spark Foundry will be expected to help reverse for its client as it attempts to transform itself.
Fireworks for Publicis
The French don’t celebrate Bonfire Night, but Publicis executives might be induced to light a sparkler or two in celebration this week. Because while the headlines might be hostile for Meta, things are looking rosy at the Groupe. Its German business has been named global agency partner by Kärcher, a producer of cleaning products and garden equipment. The Groupe is launching an agency dedicated to the brand’s needs called Publicis Boost, which will be responsible for content, commerce, PR, performance, production and media planning and buying in 70 markets across the globe.
And its media agency Zenith has won the account for ZPG, the company that owns the brands Confused.com, Uswitch and Zoopla. Zenith will handle media buying and planning for all three brands; Ebiquity consulted on the pitching process.
Gareth George, group head of media at RVU (ZPG’s comparison business), said: “The decision to work with Zenith is exciting for all parties, and we are confident that it is one that will help our businesses to continue to grow. We were impressed with their previous work on the Uswitch account and the passion they had to work with all three brands as a group. We are confident that they are the right partner who will help us achieve our future growth ambitions, and we look forward to seeing the benefits in this collaborative approach in the future.”
With Coca-Cola’s review edging toward a close and four of the major holding companies still in the race, there’s the chance of a banner month for Publicis Groupe.
Moves you may have missed
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Unilever-owned moutardier Maille has chosen indie shop Herezie to work on strategy and creative. A new campaign promoting the Dijon brand will run in France and internationally.
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Speaker brand JBL has selected ad agency Doner as its brand agency lead in the US after a competitive review. The agency expands its remit from global creative content lead.
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Breast Cancer Now has appointed BMB as its first ever brand marketing agency.
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St Luke’s has been appointed as lead creative agency for SaveMoneyCutCarbon, a service that helps consumers (you guessed it) cut energy bills and choose greener utilities providers.
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Sustainable fashion brand Re-Fashion has picked Art of the Possible off the rack as its creative agency of record.
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Zizzi, the Italian restaurant of choice for Britain’s outlet shopping centers and satellite towns, has appointed Yonder Media to cook up a brand campaign.
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Personalized photo gift company Photobox has appointed Cain&AbelDDB to lift its creative strategy.
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Swedish cider brand Kopparberg has appointed The7Stars as its media planning and buying agency in the UK.
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Game publisher Gameloft has appointed digital agency Alt-Digital as its sales partner in Pakistan, with responsibility for re-selling ad inventory in the company’s games.
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GWI, a B2B marketing data provider, has appointed agency Truant for global activations; the agency has been briefed to create a multi-channel campaign for key markets in Q1 of 2022.