PepsiCo awards Southeast Asia media mandate to Publicis

PepsiCo has awarded its Southeast Asia media mandate to Publicis Groupe, following a competitive multi-agency pitch that kicked off in April. 

Following a transition beginning in October, the F&B giant's media services in SEA will be run by a bespoke integrated team called 'Plus+ by Pubicis', led by Zenith, the same name and structure as the winning Publicis team that was awarded Pepsi's China media mandate in April.

Pepsi's Southeast Asia media account is estimated to be worth between $75-$100 million, according to published reports, with Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and Malaysia among the top markets for the brand.

Campaign understands that Omnicom was the other contending finalist in the Southeast Asia media review alongside Publicis. As with recent media reviews in China and India, Publicis takes over from incumbent agency Mindshare.

“We would like to thank the incumbent team at Mindshare for their years of work as well as our agency partners that participated in the review," said Lilly Yip, chief marketing officer at PepsiCo APAC. "Publicis Media was selected after a very thorough and competitive pitch process. Their expertise in the areas of importance to our business, like data, digital, analytics and commerce saw them emerge as our partner of choice.”

Speaking on the win, Amrita Randhawa, CEO of Publicis Groupe Southeast Asia said: “We are excited to be appointed PepsiCo’s media partner in this very dynamic and fast-growing region. We really respect the process that PepsiCo ran for its thoroughness and desire to discover the best from the agencies participating. Our entire team is incredibly motivated by the opportunity to create industry-leading work for these iconic brands in the future.”

With this mandate, PepsiCo has effectively completed a swift shift from its longstanding media agency partnership with WPP across Asia. 

Just last week PepsiCo India awarded its media mandate to Publicis following another multi-agency pitch. PepsiCo India had already announced in April that it was parting ways with WPP following a 30-year relationship, noting media partner Mindshare and creative partner Wunderman Thompson would not be pitching in upcoming reviews. Then, in early July, PepsiCo named Publicis' Leo Burnett as its new lead creative partner in India. 

Last November, Pepsi's brand rival Coca-Cola had appointed WPP as its global marketing partner, forming its own integrated bespoke unit called OpenX.

Campaign has reached out to Mindshare for comment.