Amazon has awarded its media account to WPP and OMG after an extensive global review.
The global e-commerce and tech giant split the account by geography, appointing WPP to manage APAC and EMEA regions and OMG to run the US market.
“After a comprehensive advertising agency review for our consumer business, we’ve chosen to partner with OMG and WPP,” Margaret Callahan, Amazon spokesperson, said in a statement to Mediaweek.
“We appreciate the discussions with of all the world-class agencies we met during our search. We particularly want to thank IPG, who has been a fantastic partner over the last 10+ years, and we’re grateful for all their work and continued partnership for the other significant areas of our advertising business, including AWS, Amazon Ads and Amazon Business.”
Amazon says it investigated each agency’s marketplace expertise, media planning, media pricing, measurement abilities and account management in all regions. The process took over six months from end to end and included an objective third-party review by MediaSense.
Amazon reported an annual advertising spend of USD$20.6b in 2022, up from 2021’s USD$16.9b in 2021.
The e-commerce and tech giant last reviewed its global media account in 2017. Local pitch meetings for the global company’s media began in early April.
WPP, Mediabrands, and Omnicom Media Group were among the agencies on the global pitch shortlist, held globally at a holding company level.
At the time, Mediaweek reported that OMG offered a bespoke team. WPP also proposed a bespoke solution comprising teams across the holding company.
In April, WPP and GroupM’s bespoke solution OpenMind won them the Australian media account for Nestlé.
Incumbent, Mediabrands’ bespoke Amazon agency Rufus first won the account in 2013 and retained it in the 2017 pitch. The agency will still service the global company’s Web Services, Business and Ads.
Mediaweek has reached out to WPP and OMG for comment.
See also: Nestlé hands local media account to WPP bespoke solution, OpenMind