NEWS: Y&R loses out to WPP in global Kodak coup

Kodak has aligned its pounds 200 million worldwide account with WPP

agencies. The global spoils will be shared between J. Walter Thompson

and Ogilvy and Mather, although Kodak has not yet allocated its

individual business in each country.

The UK incumbent on Kodak is Young and Rubicam, which will lose pounds 6

million worth of business here, while across Europe the realignment will

deprive it of dollars 30 million in billings in a total of 14 countries.

JWT already holds most of the Kodak account in the US, although Y&R will

lose all of its portion of the business there too.

A Y&R source said: ‘We are the most award-winning and experienced

photographic film agency in Europe. We wish Kodak well, but we intend to

put that expertise to good use in future.’

Y&R holds the Fuji account across the whole of the Far East, as part of

the agency’s partnership with Dentsu, and is expected to target the

client aggressively across the rest of the world, where most of the Fuji

account is held by Saatchi and Saatchi.

The Kodak account has switched between JWT and Y&R in recent years, and

Kodak is thought to have been unhappy about the inconsistency of its

global corporate branding. Y&R won back the account only last year,

after it had been handled by JWT for a number of years.

Wunderman Cato Johnson, Y&R’s below-the-line agency, which handles

Kodak’s direct marketing account, is expected to keep its share of the

business, regardless of the international centralisation into WPP.

JWT and O&M in the UK are both in the dark about the UK repercussions of

Kodak’s move. Mike Walsh, O&M’s chairman, said he was still waiting for

details of the realignment.

This article was first published on Campaign