Seven weeks after PepsiCo dumped Omnicom to end an almost 30-year relationship, the agency group solved its heartbreak the traditional Madison Avenue way. It walked down the street and took the keys to Coca-Cola.
The agency group picked up Coke's media business across the U.S. and Canada, an account worth an estimated $700 million to $800 million. During the pitch, Omnicom CEO John Wren and his team had to look Coke in the eye and make a very specific promise: Coke would get a dedicated roster with "no hand-me-downs from the PepsiCo account." It was a pitch built on fresh talent, deep discounts, and tech capabilities, delivered with a straight face while the moving boxes from the previous client were still being taped up in the hallway.
The math on the rebound is where the score gets fun. When Pepsi bolted for Publicis without even holding an open pitch, Omnicom CFO Phil Angelastro went on an investor stage and called the loss "unfortunate" and a "disappointment." In North America, Pepsi had been spending roughly $780 million on media. Coke's domestic account sits at an estimated $785 million. The red logo replaces the blue logo on the invoice, and Omnicom comes out five million dollars ahead on paper.
Wren told investors on an earnings call that "any business we win from Coke would be incremental to our existing revenue and our existing relationship." That is one way to describe an account that exists almost dollar-for-dollar to cover the hole left on your balance sheet seven weeks prior. The real catch sits inside the media plan itself. Coke devotes 70% of its budget to social media ads and creator content, up from just a fraction of that six years ago. Omnicom gets to tell Wall Street it recovered its North American volume, while Coke handed its $785 million ledger to the one holding company that needed a soda account badly enough to discount the fees.