OMD triumphs in Sony £200m media review

LONDON - Sony has concluded its £200 million pan-European media review with OMD emerging triumphant after keeping hold of the electronic business and winning the music and video accounts.

OMD defeated Zenith Media and MindShare for the consolidated business in an eight-month pitch overseen by Media Audits. The majority of the UK music and entertainment business, including Columbia TriStar, was held by Zenith.

The Sony PlayStation and Sony Ericsson accounts were not included in the review and these remain with their agencies - in the UK these are Manning Gottlieb OMD for PlayStation and Mediaedge: cia for Sony Ericsson.

However, some sources believe that these two accounts may also come up for review at a later date.

The Sony pitch has been one of the most protracted and fiercely contested of the year. Starcom MediaVest and Mediaedge:cia were on the initial shortlist, but were dropped from the second stage of pitching, which kicked off in Berlin in the summer.

The win is crucial to OMD, as last week the Omnicom-owned network lost the $600 million Gillette global media planning and buying account to MindShare. It is also defending its grasp on the media account for the mobile phone giant Vodafone against MindShare and Carat.

The European Sony review is the third regional consolidation the entertainment giant has conducted over the past months, all of which included some or all of the same group of media networks.

In January, Universal McCann won the US business following a series of presentations and negotiations which lasted a year.

A month after the North American review Zenith was awarded Sony's Asia-Pacific account following a review that also included OMD and Mediaedge:cia.

The Japanese media account remains with Dentsu, however.

Sony is also in the middle of reviewing its £70 million pan-European consumer products creative account out of Saatchi & Saatchi.

No-one at Sony was available for comment as ±±¾©Èü³µpk10 went to press.

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