Google consolidated its entire multi-billion global media account with Essence, US Campaign has learned.
Google has been an Essence partner for over a decade for all digital and programmatic media purchases, but the offline portion of the business is handled by Omnicom Media Group (OMG). PHD handled business in the United States and OMD handled the rest of the world, which is probably hundreds of millions of dollars in billing.
Essence already held 80 percent of the business globally, and the account was moved without formal review in an effort by Google to streamline its dealings with agencies, sources say.
Google spent $ 5.4 billion on ad and promotional spending in 2020, according to parent company Alphabet’s latest 10k report. Sources estimate aggregate media billing to be around $ 2.5 billion.
“Like all marketers, we regularly assess the missions of our partner agencies,” said Lorraine Twohill, CMO of Google, in a statement provided to Campaign US. “Omnicom has been a strong partner for us for many years and we look forward to continuing our relationship with them through other services. “
Essence, which started out as a digital and programmatic agency, has positioned itself in recent years to buy offline media in order to expand its mandate to global clients. Winning the offline portion of Google’s media buying account is a feather in the hat of this strategy.
Essence has grown in importance within parent company GroupM, WPP’s media buying group, as linear formats become more addressable. Its CEO Christian Juhl was elevated to GroupM’s Global CEO in 2019.
Essence’s relationship with Google was one of the main reasons GroupM acquired the agency in 2015.
Google is one of the world’s largest consumers of online and offline media. In 2020, the tech giant temporarily halved its marketing budget during the worst of the pandemic, but has since started ramping up spending as the economy recovers, the company said in its report on the results of the pandemic. third trimester.
Google is the latest tech giant to shake up its list of media agencies. In November, Meta (née Facebook) moved its media buying account to Spark Foundry from Publicis Groupe from Mindshare from GroupM after a competitive pitch. GroupM and Mindshare declined to defend the account when it was reviewed in March.
Google is also the latest global customer to consolidate its business with a single group of agencies. In addition to the Facebook consolidation, major global clients who have moved their creative and media businesses under a single company include Mercedes Benz, Philips, Coca-Cola, and Walgreens Boots Alliance.
Google and Facebook are coveted global accounts for any agency, but they’re difficult to navigate as the two platforms, along with Amazon, siphon off 64% of U.S. digital ad spend, according to eMarketer.
GroupM and Omnicom Media Group declined to comment.
