PARIS, June 30 (Reuters) - France's Publicis haswon a contract to be the lead advertising agency designing thecampaigns of beer maker Heineken globally, thecompanies said in a statement.
The value of the contract was not disclosed but a Heinekenspokesman said the beer group had allocated 12.7 percent of its2014 sales of 21.2 billion euros ($23.63 billion) towards salesand marketing efforts.
Independent outfit Wieden + Kennedy had previously been thelead agency advising Heineken for the past five years on itsbranding and advertising, with Publicis in a supporting role.
The contract comes at a tough time for Publicis when organicsales growth has been lagging rivals and it is racing tointegrate the $3.7 billion acquisition of digital ad agencySapient.
It is also defending an unprecedented number of lucrativemedia buying contracts in the coming six months, more thancompetitors WPP and Omnicom, amid a shake-up ofthe industry. ($1 = 0.8973 euros) (Reporting by Leila Abboud, editing by Astrid Wendlandt)
WPP (WPP)
