Carat set to retain £25m Royal Mail media

by Colin Grimshaw Media Week 13-Mar-07, 10:20

LONDON - Carat is about to be reappointed to the £25m Royal Mail media planning and buying account after a four-way pitch with three other shortlisted agencies, with an announcement expected later this week.

Royal Mail's senior marketers are believed to want to keep the business in Carat, where it has been for the past nine years, but a decision has been delayed by procurement issues.

The shortlist also included Media-Com, OMD and PHD. However, data planning in direct marketing is a key element in Royal Mail's media requirements - an area where Carat is strong in resources - hence PHD pitched with sister Omnicom Group direct marketing agency, Proximity London. OMD pitched with another Omnicom direct marketing stable-mate, WWAV Rapp Collins.

The three other agencies seem resigned to losing out. One agency chief questioned whether Royal Mail had ever had serious intentions of moving the business out of Carat and suggested that the long drawn-out process was about Royal Mail's procurement team squeezing Carat down on price. The pitch, called last September, came from a statutory review and follows Carat's retention of the business after another statutory review in 2002.

Carat's contract expires at the end of March. In its tender documents, Royal Mail said the four-year contract would be worth between £75m and £100m and includes media planning and buying and communications planning for direct marketing and sales promotion.