Downloads:

J&J to Review $3 Billion Media Account

Johnson & Johnson is preparing to put its estimated $2.5 billion to $3 billion global media account into review. If it happens, the review could change the current landscape of the largest media buyers.

The pitch is slated for early next year, following the closing of J&J’s acquisition of Pfizer’s over-the-counter drug and personal-care business, writes AdAge. One potential result could be a consolidation of the three main media roster shops - OMD Worldwide, Universal McCann, and Carat (the incumbent on the incoming Pfizer brands).

Other roster shops include Naked, which works on J&J’s U.S. communications planning, Interpublic’s ID Media, which handles direct TV buying, and WPP Group’s Mediaedge:cia, which buys interactive media for the incoming Pfizer brands.

A consolidation of the account is not an unlikely result, considering the fact that media savings is part of what made the $16.6 billion Pfizer acquisition attractive to J&J in the first place. In fact, said one person familiar with the situation, the company is looking to “squeeze out every bit of savings they can.”

The result of the media review is of enough importance that senior J&J executives, including Colleen Goggins, worldwide chairman-consumer and personal care, and Christine Poon, worldwide chairman-medicine and nutritionals,  are expected to be involved in the process, according to the insider.

Overseeing the review are Brian Perkins, corporate VP-corporate affairs, and Kim Kadlec, VP-worldwide media. The two are thought to advocate greater use of nontraditional media.
Johnson & Johnson’s central marketing services team made headlines earlier in the year by pulling out of the traditional network TV upfront.