Pfizer picks Aegis for $200m media business

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, manufacturer of impotence drug Viagra, has handed its $200m (120m) media planning and buying account to Aegis.

Shares in the UK-listed company rose 4.75p above Monday’s closing price to 92.5p. Investment bank HSBC upgraded Aegis’s share status to “buy”.

Ray Kelly, chairman and chief executive of Carat Group UK, says: “It’s our biggest win in a single pitch.”

Matthew Bryant, president of Carat/MBS Media in New York, which won the pitch, comments: “The pitch was a three-month process with a long-list of about 20 agencies and a short-list consisting of ourselves, Omnicom-owned Creative Media and incumbents RJ Palmer and Paragon Media, which pitched together.”

The account will be managed by vice-president client service director Charlie Rutman.

Viagra has received huge publicity. Pfizer is even understood to have hired former presidential candidate Bob Dole for a TV campaign to raise awareness about the problems of impotence.

Other brands manufactured by the company include the eye drop Visine and migraine drug Migraleve.

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