Dive Brief:
- MediaVest, part of Publicis Groupe, lost the Wal-Mart account, one of its largest North American clients with $907 million in measured media spending in 2014 according to Kantar Media.
- The move comes during a tough six-month period for the Publicis network of agencies, which also lost lead North American duties for Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble.
- According to Adweek it was unknown if the open account was going under review or being directly awarded to another agency.
Dive Insight:
Wal-Mart has been making vast changes across the company in recent months, including closing hundreds of U.S. locations, and now revisiting its media relationships.
Confirming the news to Adweek, a Wal-Mart spokesperson said, "We have made the decision to end our relationship with MediaVest. We thank them for their strong partnership over the past nine years. We are taking a different direction and looking for new ways to use media to connect with our customers."
Last year’s unprecedented reviewageddon impacted all major industries and agencies, including Publicis, even negatively affecting stock prices. At the time the majority of the reviews were going on Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Levy blamed the reviews on brands looking to slash costs both in fees paid to agencies and also to pay less for media buys. Levy stressed that marketers "want the price of media to go down."
"We're proud of the talent dedicated to this business and the award-winning, results-driven innovation we delivered for Wal-Mart over the years," a MediaVest spokesperson told Adweek. "We continue to partner with Wal-Mart as they transition to their new model and wish them the best in their future direction."
Though another year of massive, multi-billion dollar reviews is unlikely, it's clear that reviewageddon left its mark on the industry and essentially put the ad world on notice.