Finally, South African’s MTN Group has announced the appointment of a new roster agency in Omnicom Group as its integrated marketing communications global agency after a rigorous business review/pitch exercise which commenced March last year.
The exercise featured six global agency networks participating in the initial stage of the review. These are Dentsu Aegis Network, Havas and Interpublic Group. Others include Omnicom, Publicis and incumbent WPP (through Metropolitan Republic and Aqua) all submitted tenders for the business in March 2016.
However, only three of the six networks qualified for the second round of the review exercise – Omnicom, Publicis and WPP continued into a more rigorous second round that lasted till late last year.
A statement issued by MTN Group said “three agencies proceeded to the second round late last year, with Omnicom selected based on having met the functional and commercial requirements”.
These requirements were said to include scope of work and specialization; industry and geographic track record; proposed resources (footprint, team and transformation agenda), and specified risk and financial parameters.
The statement also indicates the appointment of Omnicom Group spans the areas of brand, media, digital, public relations, internal communication and sponsorships, across MTN’s functional areas of Marketing, Consumer, Enterprise Business, Digital Services, Corporate Affairs, Human Resources and Investor Relations at a Group level, as well as the company’s operations in 22 markets.
In Nigeria, the development makes room for the retention of the incumbent, DDB Lagos in the Nigerian market as a member of the Omnicom network. The enormity of the work might also bring about the extension of the business to TBWA another Omnicom network partner available in the country.
This development lays to rest at least for now, the rivalry between local arch-rivals, DDB Lagos and Insight Publicis’ battle for the soul of MTN business in Nigeria. Read details of the story titled: Mother of all Battles: DDB Vs Insight Publicis as MTN Reviews Business Offshore here
Omnicom is an inter-connected global network of leading marketing communications companies which offer a diverse, comprehensive range of marketing solutions spanning brand advertising, customer relationship management (CRM), media planning and buying services, public relations and numerous specialty communications services, with focus on driving bottom-line results for their clients.
MTN group was launched in 1994, and within few years, it became an emerging market operator, connecting subscribers in 22 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
