no wonder

MCU owns 80% of the Aus/NZ MPG arm.......

AXA tipped to hand global media to MPG
by Asiya Bakht 24-Jul-09, 12:40

GLOBAL - Insurance giant AXA is tipped to consolidate its global media account worth an estimated US$400 million with Havas' media arm MPG after a review process that included WPP's Mindshare, Universal McCann and OMD.

In Asia-Pacific, the review is likely to affect several media agencies including MEC, which handles the account in several markets, Madison, which handles the business in India, Thai incumbent Universal McCann and Grey Media, which works on the business in Indonesia. In January this year the insurance kicked off a review process in Asia, which involved the four agencies.

Leng Sooi Cheah, marketing head of AXA in Asia, said that the alignment with MPG in Asia was in motion. However, the pitch process was “fair” and MPG would have to submit credentials to prove they are the right choice for each local market.

“MPG will be presenting credentials to us. I wouldn’t speculate whether MPG will handle the business in each market in Asia. There will be fair play in this. They will have to prove to each of the markets that they have the right systems in place to handle the business,” she said.

An insider who is familiar with the recent developments said that it would be important for MPG to get the blessing of the local AXA teams in each of the markets and that this process in underway.

The global consolidation is likely to impact to MindShare in the UK, which handles a large chunk of AXA’s US$49 million business in that market.

Based on revenue, AXA was last ranked as the 15th-largest company in the world, with major operations in Western Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific. Last year, it managed total assets of US$1549 billion and 65 million clients around the world.vas