The review came as the result of a directive issued from the Japanese electronics and entertainment giant's headquarters at the start of the year. It called on the company's regional units to investigate economies of scale in their marketing services.
The account covers 22 European countries and applies to all Sony products except for the PlayStation games consoles and its mobile handset joint venture Sony Ericsson.
OMD and MindShare were shortlisted to contest the business after Zenith Optimedia was eliminated early on in the summer.
The business was previously carved up between OMD, which handled consumer electronics, and Zenith, which held the Columbia TriStar account. MindShare was invited to pitch on the basis of its handling of the PlayStation account for Sony Computer Entertainment.
OMD is understood to have held 60% of the value of the business that went up for pitch through its handling of consumer electronics.
Sony is currently in the middle of a pan-European advertising review with Fallon, Bartle Bogle Hegarty and incumbent agency Saatchi & Saatchi battling it out for the coveted prize.
Earlier this year, Sony used its robot dog Aibo to act as a mascot on pan-European advertising on products such as widescreen televisions, PCs, DVDs, Handycams and Walkmans. The robot was shown interacting with all the products in an attempt to humanise the technology and emphasise the products' element of fun.
OMD's win avenges the loss of the Gillette business to MindShare just a fortnight ago (Marketing, October 3).
Separately, Sony has established Aiwa Marketing for Europe to be responsible for the brand management, marketing and sales of Aiwa-branded products in Europe.
Aiwa became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony from October 1. Aiwa Marketing for Europe, based in Rotterdam, is headed by Domingo Jaumandreu as its senior vice-president and managing director.
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