OMD will handle media planning and buying for all Sony Electronic brands, including notebooks, home audio and visual and digital cameras, across all Asia-Pacific markets, excluding India and Australia.
It is understood that India and Australia took part in both rounds of the pitch process, but opted out of changing agencies. In India, Sony works with Lintas Media Group, while the brand partners with Starcom in Australia.
The business is believed to be worth between US$130 million and US$175 million, although it is thought that those figures include spend for India and Australia.
OMD will run the business out of Singapore, under the leadership of Tori Henderson, CEO at Omnicom Media Group in Singapore. The China business will be run by Elaine Ip, former CEO of OMG China who in May this year moved into a business development director role for China at Omnicom Group. Ip will be supported by Siew Ping Lim, CEO of OMD China.
The first round of pitch presentations took place in Tokyo, Singapore and Shanghai in late June, and also included UM, Dentsu and ZenithOptimedia, while the second round took place in mid-July.
MEC was appointed to the Sony media account in 2007.
In 2011 the Japanese company recorded annual losses for the third year in a row (ending March 2011). The company has lost money in its important TV business for the past eight years in the face of competition from the likes of Samsung and LG.
TV sales still account for nearly one third of the revenue of Sony’s consumer products division and 16 per cent of total sales – its single biggest product segment.
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