Ikea has decided to stick with incumbents Mediacom and Match for its media planning and buying following a global review.
The Swedish furniture giant spends around $9.3 million on main media every year, with Mediacom handling buying and Match overseeing planning duties. Globally, Ikea spends around $410 million on media.
The pitch was launched in July this year.
Ikea’s media business was mostly shared between WPP agencies Mediaedge:cia and Mediacom around the world. However, in the UK it awarded the account to Aegis Media’s Vizeum, ending Mediacom’s ten year relationship.
The IKEA Group said the goal has been to reduce media costs and optimise media buying, and media planning and strategy services in each country, with the agencies selected independently in each country.
Ikea Australia’s media planners Match and media buyers Mediacom have worked with the company for six and eight years respectively.
Ikea Australia’s marketing manager Cass Hall said: “The review process has been very difficult given the extremely high quality of all the tendering agencies’ proposals; however in the last few years we have gained real momentum with Match and Mediacom and feel there’s still a lot of wind in our sails as a team. Both agencies deeply understand the Ikea business, brand, vision and customers, and their work and ideas are consistently first-rate. We look forward to working again with them into the future.”
Match will be responsible for media strategy and planning, and all digital media planning and buying. Mediacom will be responsible for mainstream media buying.
John Preston, founding director of Match said: “Ikea is Match’s foundation client and, after two global media account reviews, it’s great to see we continue to retain the business. We see this win of such a sought after account an endorsement of our business model and also the unique structure that we have of incorporating the digital planning and buying into the overall strategic process. It’s fantastic to continue to be of service to a leading world class brand such as Ikea, and we’re looking forward to continuing our work with Mediacom.”
And Toby Jenner, chief executive officer of MediaCom Australia, said: "We're delighted to have pitched and retained the Ikea business, given the complexities of the process and our desire to work with such progressive brands. We look forward to further building the Ikea brand as they look to extend their footprint in Australia."
