• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, October 5, 2012

After a 10-month process, Unilever has wrapped up its global media review, the company confirmed Friday. The company spends an estimated $6 billion on ads annually.

The biggest change was the consolidation of the company’s global communications planning assignment largely under one agency: Omnicom’s PHD. The shop will handle those duties for Unilever’s personal care, refreshment, foods and homecare brands. IPG’s Initiative won a smaller piece of the global communications planning assignment: the client’s household care products.

Geographic assignments remained mostly intact. It decided earlier in the year, although is now just confirming, that WPP’s Mindshare is retaining the North American local planning and buying account. Other territories that Mindshare will steward include Western Europe and a slice of Eastern Europe.

In addition to its communications planning assignment, PHD retains its responsibilities for China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and New Zealand.  It will  also handle most of Eastern Europe.

Initiative, in addition to picking up its communications planning award, will continue to handle Latin America. It will oversee several Southern European markets, as well as Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.  

Commenting on the completion of the review, Luis Di Como, Unilever’s senior vice president global media, stated: “They will help us leverage our scale and engage with consumers around the world in effective and meaningful ways.”
 
The company calls its marketing strategy “crafting brands for life,” and has put added emphasis on marketing in the digital space in recent years -- a trend that will continue, Di Como indicated.
 
The review was initiated in early 2012, in line with company policy to periodically evaluate media agency arrangements. The company markets an array of consumer goods. Brands include Dove, Hellmann's and Ben & Jerry's.

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