Kraft has retained Mindshare as its Australian media agency following an internal review, B&T Today understands.
The FMCG giant has conducted a global review, dubbed Savor, of all its supplier agreements, but the decision on its Australian agencies has been made locally.
It’s understood that Mindshare will be handed a further two-year contract on top of its current agreement with Kraft, which expires in March.
Mindshare, which split with Disney last week, has seen off the potential challenge of Carat, which handles Kraft in China, and Starcom, Kraft’s North American agency.
No other agencies were formally involved in the review of the business, with the process used to benchmark Kraft’s media costs. It’s estimated that Kraft spends more than $10m a year on its media.
The fate of Kraft’s creative agencies, Badjar Ogilvy and JWT, is unclear but sources close to the review claim that they have also survived the audit.
The review is the first major analysis of agencies undertaken by Michael Magee since he was appointed Kraft’s marketing director in February.
Kraft had not responded to calls at the time of publication, while Mindshare would not comment on the developments.
The decision to retain Mindshare follows Kraft’s unveiling of ‘iSnack 2.0’ as the name of its new Vegemite product.
iSnack 2.0 was chosen from 40,000 entries after Kraft opened a public competition to name the new variant, which combines Vegemite and cream cheese. The name has provoked a mixed reaction from traditional media outlets and bloggers.
