Campaign China reported yesterday that China Mobile called a media buying and planning pitch involving long-serving incumbent Zenith Media, UM and two local agencies. We later learned that the business has a far bigger scope.
It is believed that the review follows the appointment of CEO Li Yue who has a strong procurement background.
The media pitch has been seperated into planning and buying with Mindshare, OMD, UM and Zenith Media invited for the traditional planning pitch and several local agencies joining the buying pitch.
HY Link is the incumbent digital agency for China Mobile. On the creative agency roster, Ogilvy & Mather handles the M-Zone (its pay-as-you-go plan) account while Lintas manages the Easyown business.
According to an agency source, the review is across all suppliers and not due to the performance of agencies.
The pitch results are expected to be released next month.