MediaCom takes £20m Prudential media account

by Mark Banham, Brand Republic 01-Aug-06, 14:20

LONDON - MediaCom has been awarded the £20m media planning and buying account for Prudential in a final showdown against ZenithOptimedia Group.

The brief includes the media business for the Prudential, Egg and M&G Investments brands.

The WPP agency was already the incumbent on the £12m Egg business, but will now add the £8m Prudential brief, along with the M&G Investments business. The Prudential task was previously held by Omnicom's PHD Group, which was knocked out of the pitch process at an earlier stage.

The decision to award the account taken by Alison Wright, who was promoted from chief marketing officer at Prudential-owned online bank Egg to oversee the Prudential Group's marketing activity.

Wright is a former managing director of Manning Gottlieb OMD. She took over the reins at Egg in January, moving from creative agency WCRS, where she oversaw the Abbey account. She was set a brief to bring the consolidated account under the control of a single media agency.

Both Starcom and Carat were also on the original pitch list for the Prudential account.

Last December, Prudential bought the final 21.7% stake in Egg it did not already own. The buyout followed an unsuccessful attempt to sell its interest in Egg.

Prudential turned down a £17bn takeover offer for its business from Aviva in March.

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