TLDR
WPP chief executive Cindy Rose has warned clients against awarding agency accounts without a pitch, after Publicis took PepsiCo's US$1.7 billion media account and LVMH's Asia-Pacific media account that way. Publicis boss Arthur Sadoun says clients prefer to examine one partner rather than run a 'big beauty contest'.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The warning
WPP chief executive Cindy Rose has warned clients against handing out business without a pitch. Asked by a Bank of America analyst on WPP's September-quarter results call about what he called the "pitchless CEO handshake thing", Rose said: "Nobody loves pitching. You are not going to find anybody that says, 'I love pitching.' The cost and burden of the process seems to be increasing."[1]
"These are really high-stakes decisions with material business consequences, and they deserve careful consideration," she said. "I do not think we do ourselves any favour as an industry of professionals by encouraging clients to bypass proper due diligence. I think I will leave it at that." She did not name Publicis.[1]
What prompted it
Publicis Groupe took PepsiCo's US$1.7 billion media account from Omnicom's OMD without a pitch, then won LVMH's Asia-Pacific media account the same way, ending WPP's nine-year hold on the luxury group's regional business from January. Publicis chief executive Arthur Sadoun has said the group won three material AI-led transformation assignments this year outside traditional pitch processes.[1]
Sadoun told analysts a growing number of clients would rather examine one partner closely than run a months-long "big beauty contest", and that a market with only three big holding companies makes that choice clearer. "Instead of spending months just looking at everyone, they focus on the one they want to work with," he said.[1]
WPP's own pitch season
Rose has just been through a big pitch. WPP retained Coca-Cola's global media business, winning every market it competed for, but did not take part in the North American review. "We made a tough call between spending yet another six weeks pitching for North America versus delivering against what we had already won," Rose said.[1]
The comments came as WPP reported revenue less pass-through costs down 2.1% like-for-like in the September quarter and kept its full-year guidance.[2] Its Australian business fell 4.8% in the quarter.
SOURCES & CITATIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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James Dore is founder and editor of Prompt the Market and Strategy Director at Bushnote, a Sydney strategy, SEO and AI search agency. He has a background in strategy, media and financial services, and led consumer product marketing at MONEYME. He writes on AI search, answer engines, technology policy and media economics.
