Mindshare wins $45m+ Unilever media account

Mindshare has won the massive Unilever media account following a three-way pitch, Mumbrella can reveal.

The account – estimated by Nielsen as being worth at least $45m in annual ad spend – may be the biggest piece of media business to change hands during 2011.

Unilever is estimated to be Australia’s eighth biggest spender. The other two agencies pitching for the account were PHD and Initiative, sister agency to tne year incumbent UM which was not in the running.

The result is a massive early win for Mindshare boss James Greet who returned to agencyland seven months ago after a stint running recruitment firm The Ladder. He was previously credited with turning round the fortunes of media agency OMD.  

The appointment begins in March.

Peter Boone, Unilever’s VP of marketing, said: “Unilever is looking forward to building a strong relationship with Mindshare and leveraging the global and regional relationship in Australia to drive our creative and innovative approach to building deeper connections with consumers.”

Greet said: “We are delighted to see the global relationship between Unilever and Mindshare now extend to include Australia. Clearly this is because we were able to demonstrate a strategic and creative capability to live up and deliver Unilever Australia’s ambition in this market.”