MUMBAI: Hollywood studio Lionsgate which acquired Summit Entertainment last year, has consolidated the media business for the combined entity with WPP’s Mindshare. The move has been made to generate significant cost savings.
The spends by the combined entity are in the range of $275 to 300 million.
The announcement came after Lionsgate held a multi-agency review for its media buy and planning business. Horizon, Mindshare and Initiative were the participating agencies.
Initiative was the media agency on record for Lionsgate while Mindshare handled the media duties for Summit before it was taken over.
Mindshare’s office in Santa Monica, California will handle media planning and buying activities for theatrical features as well as all home entertainment releases by Lionsgate, Summit, Roadside Attractions and Pantelion Films.
Lionsgate Motion Picture Group co-chairmen Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger said, “By combining our media related services in one company, Lionsgate will immediately see significant savings which will impact the studio’s bottom line, achieve economies of scale that can be leveraged across our feature film entities and allow us additional resources to market and distribute our films in North America. In addition to significant cost savings, this move reflects a fresh strategic approach to media buying for our feature film and home entertainment slates. Mindshare has a great track record in its field and we look forward to ramping up our efforts with them in support of our 2013 slate and beyond. It was a tough decision as all of the candidates in the mix presented great opportunity for us, but in the end Mindshare met the needs of the studio in a manner that we believe will best serve our interests.”
Mindshare North America CEO Anthony Young said, “We’re delighted to partner with Lionsgate and Summit on one of the most commercially exciting feature film slates in the world. Lionsgate has established a worldwide reputation as an innovator in the kinds of films it releases and the strategies it uses to market and distribute them, and we look forward to developing visionary and cost-effective media planning and buying strategies that reflect the Company’s entrepreneurial and game-changing spirit.”
