Champagne is most likely flowing at Omnicom Media Group and Publicis Groupe after both agencies were named winners in Disney’s $2.2 billion global media review.
According to multiple outlets, OMG will handle North America media planning and buying for Disney Studios – which includes Lucas Films, Marvel, Pixar, Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation, and the recently acquired 20th Century Fox brands (20th Century Fox Film Corp, Fox Searchlight and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment).
OMG also added Disney media channels–ABC, the Disney Channel, Freeform, FX and NatGeo.
OMG reportedly made a strong case for the depth of its talent and the strength of its data capabilities. It will service its portion of the account via a dedicated new unit called OMG23, referring to the year Disney was founded (1923).
MediaPost also states that Publicis Groupe has been awarded Disney’s new streaming service Disney+, as well as its global theme parks division. It will also handle Disney’s studio business in most markets outside of North America.
This win for Publicis is largely attributed to its data capabilities, particularly its recent $4 billion acquisition of data marketer Epsilon. Publicis will reportedly create a dedicated media shop as well.
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The group was an incumbent, but the added work will dramatically grow the size of its Disney business in 20/20
Dentsu Aegis Group’s Carat was the incumbent on Parks, and Horizon had previously handled Disney media channels. And WPP will reportedly hold onto India.
The review began in May and became controversial after reports from sources involved that Disney was looking for so-called “share shifts” from the winning contenders, meaning that they would encourage other clients to earmark a greater portion of their media spend to Disney outlets.
SOURCES: MediaPost
