WPP’s Mindshare appears to be the biggest winner in Unilever’s global media review, adding commerce media previously handled by Publicis Groupe to its duties handling the general U.S. media business.

Globally, Interpublic Group of Cos.’ Initiative and Dentsu also picked up ground, while Omnicom Media Group joined Publicis in losing some Unilever business. But Publicis also picked up four markets in South Asia previously handled by WPP, and joined Unilever’s general media roster for the first time.

GroupM’s Mindshare picked up business in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand from Omnicom Media Group and kept key assignments in Western and Central Europe plus India, Indonesia and elsewhere in Asia, including China (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan, which stayed with OMG.)

Initiative meanwhile picked up Canada and North Africa, formerly handled by OMG, while keeping assignments in Latin America, Ukraine and Greece. Dentsu appeared to be another winner in the media reshuffle, picking up the Japan assignment formerly handled by ADK, after coming up empty in Unilever’s last review in 2021. Havas retained its assignments in France and Spain.

While Publicis lost some business in the U.S., it was assigned business in Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Omnicom kept business in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, plus Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Turkey.

Unilever, home to products ranging from Axe body spray and Dove soap to Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Magnum ice cream bars, reported brand and marketing investment of around $9.3 billion in 2023. Testifying before Congress in July, Unilever U.S. President Herrish Patel pegged the company’s annual U.S. media spending at $850 million.

The review began in January. In a statement, Esi Eggleston Bracey, Unilever’s chief growth and marketing officer, thanked review participants and said: “It’s fantastic to accelerate this journey with both new and long-time partners. Together, we have an exciting opportunity to further optimize our media and content to better reflect people and culture as we continue to build our brands.”

Leadership changes

The announcement follows some changes in Unilever’s media team and unusual Congressional scrutiny of how the company handles brand safety, particularly regarding X, which sued Unilever, the World Federation of Advertisers and the Global Alliance for Responsible Media. GARM closed shop in the wake of the lawsuit.

Luis Di Como, the Unilever senior VP of global media whose emails to GARM came up in the hearing, announced earlier this month that he’s leaving the company, with Isabel Massey, global media director at Diageo, set to join Unilever in October as VP of integrated brand experiences and Selina Sykes, head of beauty, wellness, digital, media and commerce, taking on added duties.

Christian Juhl announced his departure as global CEO of WPP’s GroupM shortly after appearing alongside Patel at a July 11 Congressional hearing about GARM.

Despite the drama and the changes, WPP retained its standing as the lead media agency for Unilever across its key markets globally while adding some to its remit. It’s an important win for WPP following years in which other media agencies, Publicis in particular, had been gaining ground, including winning the Kimberly-Clark U.S. business from Mindshare last year.

Spokespeople for WPP, Publicis Media and OMG declined to comment, while spokespeople for Initiative and Dentsu either could not reach agency executives or could not immediately be reached for comment.

Shoppable media

The commerce piece of Unilever’s U.S. business picked up by WPP is increasingly important to Unilever.

“Currently about 80% of our U.S. advertising spend is directed in some form of digital media,” said Patel in his opening statement before Congress. “We spend the most on digital commerce platforms like Amazon, Walmart, Target and Walgreens, because that’s where consumers are making their buying decisions. Only 20% of Unilever’s advertising spending goes to social media platforms and less than 1% goes to digital news.”

Sports programming and making media “shoppable” have become increasingly important themes in Unilever’s marketing and media strategy in recent years. For example, Unilever last year partnered with Paramount+ and Walmart Connect to pilot a program to reach SEC college football fans that allowed them to put items in a shopping cart to buy straight from the ads. 

That’s helped create a need to better align Unilever’s general media and commerce media strategies. 

Sports programming is increasingly important to Unilever, whose Dove brand had a spot in this year’s Super Bowl and plans to be there again in 2025.

“We want to be present and really generating demand in moments that are really unmissable in culture,” said Ryu Yokoi, chief digital officer of Unilever U.S., in a June interview. “And then we want to be translating that and making those moments as shoppable as possible.”

Unilever global media assignments

Mindshare (WPP)

• Australia and New Zealand
• Central Eastern Europe 
• China (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan) 
• Indonesia 
• Italy 
• Netherlands and Belgium 
• Nordics 
• North America  
• South Asia including Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka  
• Sub Saharan Africa   
• UK and Ireland

OMG (Omnicom Group) 

• Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates 
• Germany, Austria and Switzerland 
• China: Hong Kong and Taiwan  
• Turkey 

Initiative (Interpublic Group)

• Canada 
• Greece 
• Latin America including Argentina, Brazil and Mexico 
• North Africa 
• Ukraine  

Havas Media

• France 
• Spain 

Publicis Media

• Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam

Dentsu 

• Japan