Woolworths pitch sees four agencies face off

Four of Australia’s largest media agencies will face off in the coming weeks for one of the country’s biggest media spenders Woolworths.

Mumbrella understands the shortlist is now down to just four agencies with incumbent Carat plus challengers MediaCom, OMD and Starcom MediaVest. Not on the list is Mediabrand’s agency UM, which has Coles as a client.

Woolworths announced the anticipated review in early February with the main supermarket businesses as well as the liquor subsidiaries such as Dan Murphy’s, BWS, ALH, Langtons and Cellarmasters all included in the deal.

Some agencies were initially thought to be circumspect about entering a costly pitch process for a high churn and low margin client of this size, which is likely to have a large cost element involved. However, with more than $240m in billings at stake the account is seen as important in ensuring buying bulk for whichever agency wins the account.