One year after the September 2012 appointment of vice president and head of global media Sam Singh, GSK has completed a review of its global media planning and buying account.
Singh’s remit on joining GSK was to develop a new approach to media, and this review sees the healthcare and pharma giant again streamlining its media buying. GSK’s global account, worth an estimated £1bn, is to be split between Group M and Omnicom Media Group (OMG).
OMG agency PHD will retain the US business, worth in the region of £890m, and will also run the Canadian and West African markets.
GroupM, part of WPP, will cover the rest of the world, with the exception of Japan, which will be managed by Dentsu, and the UK, where MediaCom is expected to retain GSK’s £60m account.
OMG and Group M will split responsibility for global category-planning for consumer healthcare, operating out of London, Singapore and Parsippanny, New Jersey.
The main losers in the consolidation are Publicis Group’s Starcom and Carat, who formerly worked alongside PHD and GroupM.
“The decision to consolidate our media investment with two network partners is based on various factors including simplicity and speedier deployment of best practices,” said Singh. “We believe this sets us up with a fit for purpose media system into the future.
“We continue to hold the outgoing agencies, Starcom and Carat, in the highest of regard. They have consistently exhibited high levels of professionalism and we wish them all the very best,” he added.