Wavemaker wins Audible’s $500m global media account

Amazon’s audio app Audible has consolidated its global paid media to Group M’s Wavemaker following a competitive review.

Audible’s media planning and buying was previously handled by various agencies, including Hearts & Science in the UK.

Audible operates marketplace services in 10 geographies – the US, Canada, UK, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, India, Japan and Australia. It spends about $500m on media each year. 

Audible is a platform that provides more than 700,000 audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.

It is understood a request for proposal had been sent out late last year to all major media holding companies, including Interpublic Group, Omnicom, WPP, Publicis Groupe and Havas.

The review process, supported by ID Comms, was led by Audible chief financial officer and chief growth officer Cynthia Chu and executive vice-president, head of international, Susan Jurevics.

“Wavemaker’s energised approach to media will help Audible reach many more potential customers around the world, and its global background will bring a nuanced, individualised approach to each marketplace in which we offer our service,” Chu said.

Wavemaker’s global media clients include Mondelez, L’Oreal, ViacomCBS, Coinbase and DoorDash.

Wavemaker global chief executive Toby Jenner said: “We developed bespoke principles to power Audible’s next level of performance, which will be underpinned with our market leading data and technology capabilities.

"We couldn’t be more excited to work with Audible and its teams around the world. We are two businesses very much culturally aligned through our vision for the future.”  

Wavemaker is currently defending a European offline media review of BMW Group, which aims to consolidate the carmaker's brands under one agency group. Recently, it lost the bulk of B&Q parent Kingfisher in a multimarket European review.