• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, August 29, 2016

Fast-food giant McDonald’s has selected Omnicom for all U.S. marketing duties after a competitive review that began in April.

Omnicom will create a creative agency, yet to be named, dedicated to the McDonald’s business.

McDonald’s spent $824 million on measured media in 2015 -- down about 12% from the $940 million it spent in 2014, according to Kantar Media.

Deborah Wahl, McDonald’s USA chief marketing officer, issued this statement:

“Part of building a better McDonald's means not only making changes to our food and our restaurants, but also how we conduct business, and we’re excited to announce McDonald’s USA has selected Omnicom as our partner to create a new agency which is yet to be named, to build the agency of the future. This new agency will become our partner for all U.S. National Marketing initiatives. In selecting this agency, we will have access to top talent, technology and thinking with digital and data at the core. 

They are fast, fluid and flexible and poised to deliver the caliber and volume of storytelling needed to support our business today and into the future. This new model will, over the next few years, create great work at the speed of the marketplace at an efficient cost. 

Their creative approach and bold use of channels will elevate our connections with customers in new and innovative ways.”

The account has been handled for decades by incumbents DDB, part of Omnicom, and Leo Burnett, the Publicis Groupe agency. DDB sibling agency OMD is the incumbent media shop.

DDB North America CEO Wendy Clark led the pitch for Omnicom and will oversee the new McDonald’s-dedicated agency. Publicis Groupe and WPP also participated in the review, although WPP dropped out mid-way through the process.

Clark had this to say about the win:

"Exactly 18 weeks ago today, we received a dream brief from one of the most iconic brands in the world... to create "the agency of the future.” The best and the brightest talent across multiple Omnicom agencies came together over the last four months to create, operationalize and deliver on that brief. The result is a customized agency built with intelligence at the core, to fuel brilliant creative work, that's delivered at the speed of the marketplace at an efficient cost. We are thrilled and honored to be selected and excited about immediately creating impact for McDonald’s business."

Internally, the review was led by Wahl, who joined the company more than two years ago. She retained consultant Flock to help manage the process.

It has been a huge month for Omnicom. Two weeks ago the holding company won the massive AT&T media assignment that will be led by its recently created media agency brand Hearts & Science.