JWT and O&M win Kodak battle
Kodak has centralised its global advertising account worth more than 200m into Ogilvy & Mather and J.Walter Thompson.
The loser is Young & Rubicam, which has already lost its 20m pan-European account and faces further loses in the US.
The New York based photographic giant announced its decision to centralise advertising into the two agencies last week. However, a decision has yet to be made on how advertising will be split up.
Y&R was Kodak’s lead agency in Europe and Canada and handled some business in Latin America.
Last year, it won the 5m Kodak UK account, consisting of the company’s film and camera business, from JWT, who had handled it for several years. Before this, Y&R itself had held the account.
In December last year, a reorganisation of marketing within Kodak was signalled.
The expected initiative is understood to have stemmed from senior vice president in charge of marketing Carl Gustin.
O&M had earlier picked up the 33m account for a new worldwide corporate brand advertising and marketing campaign. Y&R was invited to pitch for the assignment, but was eliminated early in the process.
The September announcement followed the appointment of chief executive George Fisher, who felt the company lacked a coherent image.
The refocusing of Eastman Kodak follows a series of global advertising centralisation. Reckitt & Colman, put its entire 150m advertising account into McCann-Erickson Worldwide last month.
Colgate Palmolive shifted its 400m worldwide advertising account into Y&R last December.
Y&R claims it is fighting to retain the US Kodak account, and the agency’s direct marketing arm, Wunderman Cato Johnson, is understood to have kept its share.
