At least one CEO wants to talk about advertising. PepsiCo’s Ramon Laguarta used a recent appearance in front of investors to champion the company’s decision to hand its global media account to Publicis Groupe.
The move came without a formal review and pulled the business away from Omnicom, which had managed it for three decades. That is a lot of money changing hands. PepsiCo spends an estimated $1.9 billion on media a year, $780 million of it in North America, according to COMvergence. The fallout spread fast. Coca-Cola, a Publicis client in North America since the holdco won that account from WPP only last year, is now preparing a review of the business, reportedly in talks with Omnicom and Dentsu.
Laguarta had his own account of the move when he spoke to investors. He described the partnership as “an important capability for us” and said PepsiCo would be able to invest “with much more data, much more granularity,” as a result. Holdcos tend to sell themselves as partners. He spoke about Publicis the way a company talks about something it has bought.
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