Clemenger BBDO has shut down its standalone media division after losing the Samsung account to Publicis Groupe, B&T can reveal.
B&T understands that Clemenger BBDO chief media officer Stuart Bailey — an Omnicom and PHD veteran — will be moving on to pursue a new venture.
Although it has not been confirmed how many senior staff have been impacted, B&T but understands Omnicom Media is looking to find new roles for staff elsewhere in the group.
The Clemenger media team is understood to have had around 50 staff and handled annual billings north of $120 million. Samsung was comfortably its largest client, but the team also provided media support to Lifeblood for the Red Cross and Latitude.
Clemenger BBDO will continue to provide clients with specialist media expertise through Omnicom Oceania’s broader media network.
“While Clemenger BBDO is transitioning away from having a standalone media department, the business continues to provide specialist media expertise and remains closely connected to Omnicom Oceania’s broader media capabilities,” an Omnicom spokesperson said.
“We will continue to give our clients unrivalled access to integrated solutions across creative, media, data and customer experience.”
Samsung consolidated its creative, media, digital and social with Clemenger Group’s CHE Proximity (which was folded into Clemenger BBDO) in 2020.
At the time, Samsung was looking to streamline the number of suppliers it had worked with in this market.
Clemenger BBDO and Samsung produced plenty of award-winning work in recent years, cleaning up at the 2025 MFA Awards.
At the start of the year Samsung called a review of its creative and media agency requirements.
In May, B&T revealed that Clemenger BBDO was out of the running of the Samsung creative and media pitch.
Samsung awarded creative to Cheil Australia, an agency that is part of Samsung Group and had already worked with the company.
Meanwhile, Samsung moved media to Publicis Groupe, which partners the company in most other markets.
