The review process includes all media planning and buying activities in the 170-plus countries in which the company currently operates.
The group is marketed as two distinct companies in the UK, Omnicom's M2M handling the £18m Kia account and ZenithOptimedia holding the £12m Hyundai business (based on spend to 30 April tracked by The Nielsen Company).
Elsewhere, OMD, via a special unit called K360 Media, handles an additional £40m worth of media business for Kia in Europe. European media for Hyundai is allocated on a local basis.
The $750m Hyundai Kia business is consolidated in the US and serviced by the Interpublic network Initiative.
Talking to Media Week, a Kia spokesman said the global review would be "looking at opportunities to consolidate the business into one agency network where possible", although he admitted "different agency networks might prove more suitable for particular markets or specific regions".
Agency networks from Interpublic, Publicis Groupe and Omnicom are known to have been invited to participate in the review, with the spokesman adding: "We're throwing it open to everyone with a big enough network to handle it."
The review process is being handled by Innocean, the in-house marketing services department at Hyundai Kia, led from the head office in South Korea.
The motoring giant intends to have new agency arrangements in place for January 2010.
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