British banking giant HSBC Holdings consolidated its reported $600 million marketing account with WPP Group, London, from about 200 agencies worldwide.
The consolidation pulled HSBC’s estimated $100 million advertising account from Lowe & Partners Worldwide, London.
HSBC began a review for the consolidated business in January, according to published reports. Lowe led a team of agencies owned by Interpublic Group of Cos., which competed against multi-agency teams from Omnicom Group and Publicis Groupe.
The massive review, held at the holding company level, could signal a trend in multi-discipline reviews intended to consolidate all marketing within a single holding company. That raises the stakes for sister shops to collaborate; but many promotion agencies have had trouble getting their ad-agency counterparts to cooperate.
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