Ad Age: Five Agencies Pitch $4 Billion P&G Media Account

Ballyhooed as part of an effort to break the lazy habit of buying too much TV, even as "below the line" marketing methods are proving out to have a higher return on investment, Procter & Gamble's review of media planning duties is unlikely to make for much change. For starters, the only thing up for review is the media planning duties. Creative strategy and media buying will remain locked up in the large agencies that have forever funneled P&G's marketing into bottom feeder TV avails. The planning agencies will not be able to parse out budgets into categories with which the buying agencies are unable to competently cope.

P&G plans merely to meld PR planning and promotions planning responsibilities to media planning, in hopes that some sort of synergy will result, or at least a more level playing field will arise, in which below-the-line marketing can compete better for budgets. The four of the five finalists in the review are typical large ad agencies, with the fifth, Targetbase, being a direct firm that won P&G favor by adopting its "proprietary" marketing methodologies.