Ferrero unwraps global media review

The Italian confectionery giant behind Nutella and Kinder has called its second major media planning and buying review within three years.

Ferrero has been aggressively expanding from Europe in recent years, opening a factory in China in 2015 and acquiring several US brands from Nestlé in 2018 and Kellogg in 2019.

In late 2019 it moved much of its media buying and planning, then estimated to be worth as much as $950 million globally, from PHD to Mindshare, including the key US portion.

However, a later review in the UK in 2020 did not go entirely smoothly. Both Starcom and incumbent PHD were considered and both initially failed to agree terms with Ferrero before Starcom was appointed.

A few months later, Starcom also won the business in China, from Dentsu Aegis Network (now Dentsu International) agency Carat.

Starcom is not believed to handle any other markets while Mindshare is believed to account for 20, including Italy, where Ferrero was founded in 1946.

Ferrero, Starcom and Mindshare declined to comment.