June 06, 2011

Mars splits with TBWA for BBDO

Mars has consolidated its global advertising account for its Snickers, Mars, Galaxy, Pedigree, Whiskas and Twix brands into the Omnicom Group-owned BBDO network, moving the business out of TBWA without a pitch.

Mars is expected to move the global advertising account for Twix out of TBWA into BBDO New York. Additionally, the Skittles and Starburst brands have been moved out of TBWA into Omnicom-owned DDB, which will continue to manage Airwaves' global account as well. DDB will also take on other Mars accounts, including Milky Way in the US, Combos and Balisto.

TBWA had a 10-year relationship with Mars. The network added 14 global creative assignments from the company in 2002 after it split from Cadbury.

Just a year ago, TBWA Worldwide retained the global Twix business, and picked up the US portion of the account after a pitch against SapientNitro.

This story originally appeared in Campaign, the sister publication of Direct Marketing News at Haymarket Media.