21st Century Fox pitches media globally, confirming $30m local spend included in pitch
The parent company of local film studio and distributor 20th Century Fox has confirmed a global pitch for media overnight.
Overnight 21st Century Fox announced the move, which will cover all their TV and film brands globally, shortly after Mumbrella had revealed that the company locally had sounded out multiple agencies in market for its $30m in Australian billings.
“We are getting great service from all of our current agency partners so this review is not about performance or cost. The rules of consumer engagement in our business are shifting quickly and dramatically,” a spokesman for 21st Century Fox told Mumbrella.
“After more than ten years since our last company-wide global review, we are going through this process to ensure we have the right agency partners who are best equipped to work with us to reimagine the future of marketing for 21st Century Fox’s leading brands.”
Globally the account is worth more than $1bn, while locally Nielsen puts its billings at $30m. However, this marketing budget is likely to grow amid a massive surge in blockbuster movie releases from the big studios, with 20th Century Fox releasing the Fantastic Four, and sequels to the Maze Runner, Kung Fu Panda, X Men: Apocalypse and Independence Day in the next 12 months.
The announcement sees local incumbent media agency ZenithOptimedia put on alert with Publicis’s Zenith and Denstu Aegis’s Vizeum the main incumbents around the globe.
Mumbrella understands from sources familiar with the review that the company is unlikely to consolidate the account with a single agency globally and that the review is expected to start in early June and be completed by Feb 2016.
Locally it will be first time the account has pitched since 21st Century Fox split from its sister company News Corp in 2013.
The last domestic pitch, in 2012, saw the publisher divide up its local media assets among Australia’s major buying groups with Mediacom getting Foxtel, UM getting News Corp Australia’s newspapers and ZenithOptimedia getting 20th Century Fox’s business.
Subsequently Foxtel moved to Mindshare, in the wake of revelations about misreporting on audience figures, while News Corp then moved its business to Mediacom.
Nic Christensen
