Earlier this year, the Italian-American Fiat Chrysler Automotives (FCA) merged with the French Peugeot Citroën Group (PSA), creating the 5th biggest car manufacturer in the world (by unit sales) behind Volkswagen, Toyota, General Motors and the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance.
The merger was completed on January 16th 2021 with a new name: Stellantis.
Merging the two media budgets together, and Stellantis became the 5th biggest global advertiser overnight, behind P&G, Unilever, L'Oréal, and General Motors with an overall annual global media budget circa. $3.1B.
FCA global media budget was handled by multiple media agencies but mostly Mediacom from WPP, and PSA was handled purely by Publicis Groupe agencies, so a global media agency pitch was inevitable.
But this was the fastest pitch in history!
Campaign reported that "the review concluded after multiple rounds of meetings with senior leadership at both companies".
Another source reported that the RFI was not even sent and that the pitch team was not even aware of the decision.
So one might wonder what Publicis offered to successfully secure the account without the proper due diligence done. And what could be the consequences to existing Publicis Groupe clients.
On the other hand, Mediacom has a big gap in their billings to fill in. Anyone pitching at the moment with Mediacom in their shortlist could be in for a treat!
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