Visa moves $7.4m media account from OMD to Starcom in latest ‘mediapalooza’ decision
Financial services giant Visa is to move its media buying from OMD to Starcom globally, the company has announced overnight.
The move is expected to see the high profile brand, which has a $7.4m media spend in Australia, move locally in what is just the latest decision in the series of global media reviews labelled “mediapalooza” by the US trade press.
All agencies declined to comment today and Visa has been contacted for comment.
The global pitch was called back in April with OMD put on alert.
The resolution on the Visa media pitch brings the number of current global pitches impacting the Australian market down to ten with an estimated media spend of $169.9m.
The size and sheer number of media pitches occurring at the moment has been criticised with media consultants describing the impact on the US and Australian markets in the short term as a “disaster” for the agencies.
“This is a disaster. Particularly looking at the US where there are billions of dollars tied up in RFIs (requests for information) and really there are only ten agencies in the US who can participate in those,” said Navigare’s Jeff Estok in July.
“No one has a team sitting around waiting for pitches. It is a hell of a drain on resources but it is part of the business. The quantum of pitch has got to be having an effect on the agencies in the States especially. Everybody loses.”
Nielsen estimates the media spend on Visa at $7.4m.
Nic Christensen
Update 2pm:
“As part of our regular business practice, Visa consistently evaluates how we do business and, as such, conducted a global media agency review to ensure we have the right mix of support to meet our brand and marketing goals, ” said a Visa spokesman.
“We just concluded our review and have awarded Starcom the position of global media agency of record supported by Social Code for digital in North America.
Nice work, Starcom
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