Tesco’s media review will now see its current agency of choice Mediacom, pitch against Zenith for the supermarket’s ad account.
According to Campaign Live, the review is at an ‘advanced stage’.
This is the second time WPP’s Mediacom and Publicis’ Zenith have gone head to head, with Zenith winning the Lloyds Banking Group account from Mediacom in 2021.
Tesco spends around £80 million a year on advertising. Most recently the CEO of the big 4 grocer Ken Murphy, stated that the UK will be seeing “plenty” of the retailer on the airways this Christmas.
In a media call yesterday (6 October) announcing its interim results, Murphy said the retailer is “always looking to make that money work harder, and be more efficient.”
“I don’t think we’re going to see any diminution of the quality and the coverage that we get for our marketing spend,” he said. “You’ll be seeing plenty of us on the airwaves over this Christmas.”
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The fight for the supermarket’s media account is Mediacom’s first major account defence since it announced that it will join WPP’s agency Essence in 2023. Essence currently works with Sainsbury’s, Tesco’s rival.
BBH, Tesco and Mediacom developed the ‘Food love stories’ campaign together, which was won at Cannes Lions 2018 and also the IPA Effectiveness Awards in 2020.
