MUMBAI: Unilever, which had initiated a global review in early 2012 in line with company policy to evaluate media agency arrangements periodically, has split the business between Mindshare, PHD and Initiative globally.

In India,As a part of the announcement, WPP‘s Mindshare will continue to buy and plan media for Unilever in markets including Europe (UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia), North America (US, Canada and Caribbean), Asia (India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Viet Nam, Australia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh) and Africa (South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa).

Omnicom‘s media agency PHD has been appointed in Europe (Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina), Asia (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and New Zealand) while IPG‘s media agency Initiative has been appointed in Latin America (all countries including Mexico, excluding Brazil) and Europe (Greece, Portugal, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus).

Additionally, PHD will also handle the global communication planning account for personal care, refreshment, foods and homecare brands. Global planning for Household Care will be managed by Initiative, as part of an integrated IPG solution.

Unilever SVP Global Media Luis Di Como said, "We are confident that we have the right agency partners to service our business. They will help us leverage our scale and engage with consumers around the world in effective and meaningful ways, in order to fulfill our ambition of doubling the size of our business while reducing our environmental footprint and increasing our social impact."

"We greatly value the long-term relationships that we have with our agency partners and look forward to continue working closely with them to deliver our marketing strategy, Crafting Brands for Life, and our ambition to continue leading in the digital marketing space," Di Como added.