Carat wins the pitch as UDV centralises media

United Distillers and Vintners, the spirits giant formed from the

merger of United Distillers with International Distillers and Vintners,

has centralised its pounds 30 million media business into Carat after a

three-month review.

Carat pitched against Western International Media for business that

includes the media task for brands such as Smirnoff and Gordon’s

Gin.

Both agencies already handled a portion of the business. Carat held the

United Distillers media account, while Western handled a large chunk of

the IDV business.

Court Burkitt, which also held IDV accounts, was not invited to pitch

for the centralised business. MindShare, which was included on the

original pitch list, was dropped from the pitch the week after the

review was announced.

UDV’s marketing director, Tony Scouller, confirmed this week that,

subject to the signing of a final contract, Carat would pick up the

business.

Western will retain media planning and strategy for Smirnoff,

Sheridan’s, Baileys and Malibu, the brands for which its sister shop,

Lowe Howard-Spink, handles the creative work. Western continues handling

media buying for Jack Daniels, the Brown Forman-owned brand, which has a

marketing deal with UDV.

Scouller said that the presentations from both Carat and Western were

’of the highest quality’. He added: ’I would like to pay tribute to

Western International Media and to thank it for its work over the past

seven years.’

The media changes come two months after UDV re-aligned the bulk of its

creative work internationally into three networks, Leo Burnett, the Lowe

Group and J. Walter Thompson.

The review of the spirits division’s agency suppliers is part of a wider

review of all agencies used by its parent company, Diageo. UDV is also

planning a global media alignment for next year, with the possibility

that media planning and buying could be rationalised into a single

international media network.

This article was first published on Campaign