Unilever confirms £3bn media roster

By Maisie McCabe, campaignlive.co.uk, 08 October 2012, 04:45PM

Unilever has confirmed the reappointment of Mindshare as its media agency for Western Europe including the UK and PHD to the global communication planning brief for the bulk of its brands.

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As Campaign revealed last week Unilever has reappointed Mindshare to its estimated £550m planning and buying account in Western Europe, including: the UK; Ireland; the Netherlands; Belgium; Germany; Austria; Switzerland; France; Italy; Spain; Sweden; Denmark; Finland and Norway.

In a blow to the incumbent Mindshare Unilever confirmed its global communications planning for its personal care, refreshment, foods and homecare brands will move to PHD, as revealed by Campaign in June.

In a coup for Interpublic, Initiative has won the global planning for Unilever's household care brands, including Persil and Domestos.

Unilever’s household care brands, such as Persil and Domestos, will continue to be held by Initiative.

Mindshare will also continue to work on Unilever’s local planning and buying in: Romania; Bulgaria; Serbia; the US; Canada; the Caribbean; South Africa; sub-Saharan Africa; Indonesia; Thailand; Malaysia; Singapore; Vietnam; Australia; India; Pakistan; Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

PHD has been reappointed in: Eastern Europe, including Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina; China; Hong Kong; Taiwan and New Zealand.

Initiative has been reappointed in: Greece; Portugal; Russia; Ukraine; Belarus and Latin America, including Mexico but excluding Brazil.

Luis Di Como, senior vice president global media, Unilever, said: "We are confident that we have the right agency partners to service our business.

"They will help us leverage our scale and engage with consumers around the world in effective and meaningful ways, in order to fulfil our ambition of doubling the size of our business while reducing our environmental footprint and increasing our social impact.

"We greatly value the long-term relationships that we have with our agency partners and look forward to continue working closely with them to deliver our marketing strategy, 'Crafting Brands for Life', and our ambition to continue leading in the digital marketing space."

Unilever called a review of its £3bn media planning and buying business in December. The new relationships will begin in January 2013.

The global planning for Unilever’s household care brands, such as Persil and Domestos, will continue to be held by Initiative.

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This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk