Coca-Cola Co. is nearing the end of a closed review of its U.S. media account, with incumbent WPP and rival Publicis Groupe in the running for the business, Ad Age has learned.

Losing the U.S. media business would represent a blow to WPP, which in 2021 won the beverage giant’s creative, media, data and marketing technology business spanning more than 200 countries. The London-based ad giant formed a bespoke team called Open X to service the account, which includes some 200 brands from sodas such as Coke and Sprite to sports drinks, juices, coffee, tea and plant-based drinks.

Publicis was the runner-up in the 2021 review, which led to WPP taking 90% of Coke’s media and Dentsu handling the rest.

Coca-Cola, WPP and Publicis did not provide comment. 

Coca-Cola spent an estimated $1.8 billion on U.S. advertising in 2023, up roughly 17% from 2022, according to Ad Age Datacenter. It ranked 28th on Ad Age’s Leading National Advertisers 2024. The brand had measured U.S. media spending of $409 million through the first nine months of 2024 and $621 million throughout 2023, per MediaRadar.

Should it hire Publicis, Coke would once again have media duties split among multiple holding companies while decoupling media and creative in the all-important U.S. market. When WPP was hired, Manolo Arroyo, Coca-Cola’s global chief marketing officer, emphasized creating an agency model that was “consumer-centric and silo-free,” noting that consumers “don’t separate the message from the medium.” At the time, he cited the global scale of WPP, but conceded that Publicis was strong in North America.

Coca-Cola has put a major emphasis on marketing efficiencies, including using AI, which was used to create a 2024 holiday campaign. During a presentation at the recent Consumer Analyst Group of New York Conference, Chief Financial Officer John Murphy cited the campaign as a “great example of being able to drive at scale a creative solution that was very well received by our consumer set across the world, but produced much faster and at a much lower cost base and more of that is in the works,” according to a transcript.

Last month, Coca-Cola Co. reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat analyst expectations, with global net revenue up 6% to $11.5 billion.