Coca-Cola is reviewing its North American media account after Publicis Groupe won PepsiCo's global media business and chose not to defend the Coke mandate. The account encompasses media planning and buying across the United States and Canada, with combined annual spend estimated at $4 billion based on Kantar data for 2024. Publicis held the business since 2009 through Starcom.
Three networks are in active discussions: Omnicom, Dentsu, and WPP. The review covers only North America; Publicis retains Coca-Cola's media work in Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific under separate contractual arrangements. Industry protocol prevents agencies from holding competing accounts in the same category within a single market, forcing the incumbent to abandon one or the other. Publicis selected Pepsi. The decision reflects a $7 billion global commitment from PepsiCo announced in December 2024, a contract value that exceeds Coca-Cola's North American spend by 75 percent.
The review matters because it shifts bargaining leverage inside the three remaining networks. Omnicom and Dentsu both service Coca-Cola in other markets—Omnicom through OMD in certain Asia-Pacific territories, Dentsu through Carat in select European markets—but neither holds the flagship North American mandate. WPP lost PepsiCo's media business to Publicis in 2020 and has publicly prioritized carbonated-beverage clients as a vertical growth target in its 2025 investor presentations. The winner inherits a portfolio that includes Coca-Cola Classic, Sprite, Fanta, Dasani, and smartwater, with media allocations weighted toward digital video at 42 percent of total spend, linear television at 31 percent, and social platforms at 18 percent as of Q4 2024. The account does not include creative, which remains with WPP's OpenX since 2021.
Second-order effects are already visible. WPP's GroupM unit has reportedly assigned a dedicated task force to the pitch, pulling senior talent from Mindshare and Wavemaker to build a unified offering. Dentsu is expected to propose a Carat-led model with performance analytics handled by Merkle, mirroring the structure it uses for Toyota. Omnicom's OMD has not publicly commented but is understood to be preparing a decentralized approach that keeps planning and activation within regional offices rather than centralizing command in New York.
Operators should watch for the official review timeline in March 2025, with agency presentations likely in May and a decision before July. The winner will need to stand up a dedicated North American hub by January 2026, when Publicis's contract expires. Coca-Cola has not announced whether it will consolidate all media functions under one network or split duties between two finalists, a structure it has used in the past for creative and activation. The company spent $4.2 billion on measured media globally in 2024, down 6 percent year-over-year as it shifted dollars toward retail media networks and owned-channel content.
Publicis's departure after fifteen years ends the longest continuous media relationship in Coca-Cola's post-2000 agency roster. The company has changed media partners eight times since 1990, more frequently than Procter & Gamble (four times) and Unilever (six times) in the same period. The next agency will inherit a brand whose North American volume declined 2 percent in 2024 while its media efficiency improved 11 percent, according to the company's February earnings call. That efficiency gain came from programmatic buying improvements Publicis implemented in 2023. The successor will need to maintain that trajectory while navigating increased regulatory scrutiny of data targeting in both the United States and Canada, where new privacy legislation takes effect in September 2025.