Fast food firm Yum Brands drops Carat for Mediacom
Media agency Carat has been fired by one of its biggest clients, losing Yum Brands to Mediacom.
Carat issued a press release this afternoon saying:
“Carat are enjoying a period of sustained growth and in recent months have won Disney, Disney Channel, Kraft Foods and NRMA Motoring & Services, to name but a few. However, following ten years working successfully together, Carat Australia and YUM! Restaurants will part ways.”
Nobody from Mediacom was available to comment on the win. Mumbrella understands that at the time of writing, most of the agency was celebrating at the agency’s North Sydney local, the Rag & Famish.
Yum Brands includes KFC and Pizza Hut.
The move contradict previous speculation that Ikon could get its hands on some of the business. Last year Yum Brands dropped Photon’s Bellamy Hayden from its roster and gave strategy work to Ikon’s planning unit C2.
Not long afterwards Carat’s former trading director Paul Meischke joined Yum to manage KFC’s marketing.
Meanwhile the move spells further bad news for Carat, which has seen a revolving door of its Sydney leadership and sister agency Vizeum struggle to make an impact on the market.
The move will sting all the more for Aegis, which owns Carat and Vizeum, as the review was led by Kinesis, whose co-founder Richard Halmarick led Carat during its glory days.
Carat’s biggest client is now Kraft
But the deal is the strongest sign yet that Mediacom’s new strategy-rather-than-buying direction is paying off. It also marks an evening of the scores by WPP, which owns Mediacom. Last month Carat took the Kraft business off WPP’s Mindshare.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Bravo mediacom. This just proves you guys are onto something. Well done.
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Congrats guys. Love ya work.
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Steady is back!!! Word on the street is that he has kicked the GroupM deals into shape, and finally made them competitive in this space. This must be evidence of that.
Well done. He is a legend.
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So now I know who’s been making those awful KFC ads.
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Well done Steady – you have clearly made a difference since getting back into the GroupM seat – knocking them back into shape!
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Finally Group M can compete with Ikon on rates.
Well done Steady….
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rates can only take you so far, you need brains too.
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Blind faith in over saturated TV schedules doesnt help much either. Good luck Mediacom bringing these clients into the 21st century!
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congratulations mediacom — a very smart decision by Yum – really well deserved win.
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But at what price? Good luck making the required WPP margins on this puppy boys! Just see resources stretched further to deliver on promises made….
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…some backroom deal for sure
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