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Visa Inc. has put its estimated $600 million global advertising account into review with the aim of consolidating the business into a single advertising holding company from several that handle the business today. Incumbent Visa agencies owned by Omnicom Group, WPP Group and Publicis Groupe are expected to participate in the review. Omnicom's TBWA\Chiat\Day handles Visa's creative advertising in the United States, while its BBDO unit handles Visa in the Asia-Pacific region. WPP's Grey handles Visa's advertising in Central and Eastern Europe, and Publicis' Leo Burnett handles Visa ads in Canada. Publicis' Saatchi & Saatchi handles creative advertising for Visa Europe, which Visa Inc. spun off last year. That unit is not included in the review. "As a newly public company, Visa Inc. is undertaking a thorough review of its global agency partnerships," Visa said in a statement. "The goal is to identify creative synergies and cost efficiencies by consolidating all our activities under one partnership with a single holding company." Visa, which appointed former PepsiCo executive Antonio Lucio as its first global chief marketing officer in November, conducted a review of its global media-buying accounts earlier this year. Visa will meet with agencies beginning next week, and it expects final presentations in September. Visa also said it expects to make a decision on one company to handle all of its worldwide creative advertising by this fall.
