With Coca-Cola naming WPP as its global marketing network partner for its $4 billion business, rival PepsiCo ’s business, which is also represented by WPP in markets like India , will need to be clarified, industry executives said. "We are awaiting further clarity on the development,” a PepsiCo India spokesperson said in a revert to ET’s query. India is among the few countries where WPP group agencies represent PepsiCo.Both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are big spenders on advertising, and spends are expected to further increase as they gear up for next summer after two consecutive Covid-19 waves.One possibility could be two separate agencies within the WPP group working on the rival cola accounts in India, or PepsiCo aligning with another group, executives said.WPP won the Coca-Cola business following one of the largest pitches of the year, which included IPG, Dentsu and Publicis also pitching for the account. Coca-Cola said on Monday that WPP will be its “global marketing network partner” operating under a bespoke unit called OpenX, and added that the WPP team will manage creative, media, data and marketing technology across Coca-Cola’s entire portfolio of brands and its global ventures, including Costa coffee.Coca-Cola said its relationship with WPP is “unprecedented” in its breadth and depth, as well as for the industry “given its geographical scale and reach.”“Consumers respond to an entire experience – they don’t separate the message from the medium – and that’s why we’ve designed an agency model to be truly consumer-centric and silo-free,” said Coca-Cola global chief marketing officer Manolo Arroyo said in a statement.Dentsu has been named a “complementary media partner”, to represent Coca-Cola in certain geographies. Coca-Cola’s account moves away from IPG.

Source: Economic Times November 09, 2021 12:04 UTC