Havas Media Asia Pacific has won a global pitch to take on the worldwide media planning and buying for luxury hotel group Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts.

The agency, which pitched under the banner of MPG (Havas Media’s global media network), beat out Starcom, OMD, UM and Carat for the coveted global business. The shortlist was revealed by B&T in October. 

Neither incumbent Maxus nor any Group M agencies took part in the review, following reports of client-agency conflict.

The pitch was handled by China-based consultancy, R3.

Havas said it was selected for its ability to deliver “media innovations and strong integrated solutions”. The hotel account will be led out of the agency's Hong Kong operations.

Deryk Tang, MD of MPG Hong Kong said: “This is an extremely exciting win for us and a testament to our extensive experience in the luxury and hospitality sector. We have a great synergy with the marketing team from Shangri–La.”

Stuart Clark, MD of Havas Media International APAC, said: "Shangri-La Hotels is a brand synonymous with Asian luxury and hospitality. They have produced some really interesting campaigns over the last few years, taking the brand into a unique territory within the category.

“We will leverage all our specialist resources in International and Luxury marketing to help them build on that platform in 2013 and beyond."

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts currently has 76 hotels and resorts throughout Asia Pacific, North America, the Middle East and Europe and a room inventory of over 30,000.

New hotels are under development in mainland China, India, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Turkey and United Kingdom.

The range of companies within Havas Media include:  MPG, Arena Media (Havas Media’s network for tailor-made communication services), Havas Digital (Havas Media’s global interactive network) and Havas Sports & Entertainment (Havas Media’s global sports and entertainment communication network).

Ogilvy Asia created the following TVC campaign for Shangri-La in 2010 called 'It's in our nature'.