Google has consolidated its entire multi-billion global media account with Essence, United States Campaign has learned.
Google has partnered with Essence for over a decade for all digital and programmatic media buying, but the offline portion of the business is managed by Omnicom Media Group (OMG). PHD handled the business in the US and OMD handled the rest of the world, which is probably hundreds of millions of dollars in billings.
Essence already owned 80% of the business globally, and the account was moved without formal review in a bid by Google to streamline its relationship with agencies, sources say.
Google spent $5.4 billion on advertising and promotional spend in 2020, according to parent company Alphabet’s latest 10k report. Sources estimate that the overall media billing is worth around $2.5 billion.
“Like all marketers, we regularly evaluate the engagements of our partner agencies,” Lorraine Twohill, CMO of Google, said in a statement provided to Campaign US. “Omnicom has been a strong partner to us for many years and we look forward to continuing our relationship with them through other services.”
Essence, which began as a digital and programmatic agency, has positioned itself to buy offline media over the past few years to grow its mandate with global clients. Winning the offline portion of Google’s Media Buying Account is a feather in the hat for this strategy.
Essence has taken on increasing importance within parent company GroupM, WPP’s media buying arm, as linear formats become more addressable. Its CEO Christian Juhl was elevated to Global CEO of GroupM in 2019.
Essence’s relationship with Google was a key reason GroupM acquired the agency in 2015.
Google is one of the world’s biggest spenders on online and offline media. In 2020, the tech giant temporarily halved its marketing budget at the height of the pandemic, but has since begun to ramp up spending as the economy recovers, the company said in its earnings report. third trimester.
Google is the latest tech giant to shake up its slate of media agencies. In November, Meta (née Facebook) transferred her media buying account to Publicis Groupe’s Spark Foundry from GroupM’s Mindshare after a competitive pitch. GroupM and Mindshare declined to defend the account during its review in March.
Google is also the latest global client to consolidate its business with a single agency group. In addition to the Facebook consolidation, major global customers that have consolidated their creative and media businesses under one company include Mercedes Benz, Philips, Coca-Cola and Walgreens Boots Alliance.
Google and Facebook are coveted global accounts for any agency, but they’re tricky to navigate because 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.
