Mars hands $550m US media to MediaVest

by Daniel Farey-Jones, Brand Republic 05-May-09, 16:00

LONDON - MediaVest has triumphed in the Mars $550m (£365m) US media planning and buying consolidation pitch, taking the media duties for the Wrigley brands from Mindshare.

Mars called the pitch in April, six months after completing the acquisition of the Wm Wrigley Jr Company.

Wrigley's chewing gum brands include Extra, Orbit and DoubleMint among others. MediaVest now adds these to its existing Mars brands including Dove, Galaxy, Mars, Milky Way, Twix, Pedigree and Whiskas.

Mindshare has handled Wrigley's media planning and buying since 2006, while MediaVest has been working for Mars since 2004.

MediaVest, a division of Starcom MediaVest Group, will handle television, cinema and radio. Digital buying and planning will remain with sister Publicis agency Digitas.

Out of home media will remain with WPP specialist agency Kinetic.

Paul Chibe, vice-president of North American marketing for Wrigley said: "The selection of MediaVest was driven by the clear and joint business needs that ensure Mars and Wrigley have the long-term structure in place to deliver strong performance while strengthening our competitive advantage and bringing additional value to our consumers."

He praised Mindshare's "hard work and professionalism".

Comments

Victor Guillen - 05/05/2009

This Mars and Wrigley union make a real strong company in the confectionery sector with strong brands. Maybe it's time for Hershey, Ferrero, Perfetti Van Melle and Cadbury to think about a possible fusion in the future.