MUMBAI: It is a win that came after a six-month evaluation process. Mindshare has retained its Unilever account for South Asia, including India, the US, Canada, Western Europe and South and Central Europe.

The FMCG giant will, thus, split its $5 billion global media business between Mindshare, Interpublic Group (IPG) and Omnicom Media Group (OMG).

It could not be independently verified how much was the size of the India account. Hindustan Unilever Ltd, however, spent Rs 17.65 billion on advertising and promotion for the first three quarters of this fiscal in India, up from Rs 12.41 billion a year ago.

Mindshare gets to handle the India account once again at a time when the margins of HUL are squeezed and its market supremacy in many products are threatened. The FMCG major has been fighting back and has increased its ad spend while it is eyeing the premium brands to widen its margins.

HUL is the top advertiser under FMCG sector on television during the calendar year 2009. It accounted for 19 per cent of FMCG sector‘s TV ad pie in terms of volumes, while Reckitt Benckiser (India) Ltd grabs the second spot with a share of 7 per cent.

Ponds White Beauty, Clinic All Clear Tech Soft and Dove Hair Fall Therapy System, all from the HUL stable, are the top three new brands of FMCG sector advertised on TV during 2009 in terms of secondage consumption, according to Tam data.
 
Before finalising on Mindshare, Unilever had initiated its global media agency review in July 2009 across 53 countries, in line with the company policy to evaluate media agency arrangements periodically.

Subsequently, in October, the FMCG major had shortlisted the battle to Aegis Mediabrands, Mindshare and OMG.

Says Unilever VP global media Laura Klauberg, "As we increasingly make use of digital and social media, we are confident that we have the best agency partners to help us engage in new ways with the 2 billion consumers whose lives we touch. In addition, greater alignment within our key country clusters will contribute to achieving exceptional results for our business in an increasingly complex and fragmented media environment."
 
 
The outcome for Unilever‘s lead countries is as follows: