Mars’ media to stay at Zenith

Zenith Media will not lose the Mars media buying business, despite Saatchi & Saatchi’s loss of the global and media strategy business, Mars confirmed this week.

According to John Murray, staff officer (franchise) at Mars in the US: “There is no media buying review underway and we are not making any special evaluation of media buying.”

He adds: “Media buying is irrelevant to the agencies we appointed last week, which were prompted by management changes at Saatchi.”

The decision vindicates Zenith’s recent attempts to distance itself from its troubled parent and marks a personal victory for Zenith chief executive Christine Walker. The company handles about ú100m of Mars’ international media buying, ú21.7m of it in the UK (Register-MEAL).

D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles, Grey Advertising and BBDO Worldwide were appointed last week to handle the Mars global creative and media strategy business.

Grey’s media offshoot, Mediacom, handles ú12m of Mars UK business while DMB&B’s The Media Centre has ú24.6m.

All three media operations refused to comment on the Mars business.