Mediacom lands £20m ICI Paints account in Asia

by Maria Esposito, brandrepublic.com, Friday, 08 December 2006, 9:00am,

LONDON - WPP Group's Mediacom has beaten off competition from rival agencies to win the ICI Paints £20m media planning and buying account for the Asia Pacific region.

It is understood that Mediacom was handed the ICI Paints account after a hotly contested nine-month pitch period, which saw the agency go head-to-head with Publicis Groupe-owned ZenithOptimedia in the final round.

Mediacom already handles the ICI Paints account in China and will now add Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, countries previously covered by Zenith and OMD, to its roster. ICI Paints regional media spend is worth $40m (£20.3m) a year.

Andrew Porter, ICI Paints Asia Pacific marketing director, said: "We were very clear from the outset of this pitch process that our goal was to drive value and consistency throughout the Asia Pacific region.

"MediaCom delivered on our every expectation but what really impressed us was their understanding of the issues facing our brands and the intelligent and innovative communication strategies they developed to address those issues."

ICI, which was founded in 1926 from a merger, this week celebrated its 80th birthday. Mediacom will start working on the account straight away.

If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the Forum.

This article was first published on brandrepublic.com