Village Roadshow is set to hand its media planning and buying duties to IPG Mediabrand’s agency UM, B&T understands.
The cinema and theme parks group has worked with OMD since the agency entered the Australian market in 2000.
Industry sources have confirmed the account—which covers theme parks, cinemas and other entertainment assets—will move across to UM.
The timing of the account move is intriguing. UM is due to become a stablemate of OMD after its parent company Omnicom completes a takeover of Interpublic in a matter of weeks.
Established in 1954 by Roc Kirby, Village Roadshow owned and managed one of Australia’s first drive-in cinemas in the Melbourne suburb of Croydon.
The business soon branched out into film distribution and production during the 60s and 70s and 80s, before later adding other entertainment divisions such as theme parks and top golf.
It now runs more than 20 cinemas, with most in Victoria. It also operates iconic Gold Coast theme parks Sea World, Movie World and Wet ‘n’ Wild.
Village Roadshow did not respond to B&T prior to publishing, while both agencies declined to comment.
