- Steve McClellan

Bayer HealthCare has consolidated its U.S. media duties with Interpublic Group's Initiative after a review, according to sources.

The account had been split between Initiative, which handled national broadcast chores, and WPP's Mediaedge:cia, which handled the rest of the account. Other shops in the pitch were not immediately known.

The Bayer HealthCare unit spends close to $100 million annually on domestic measured media, sources familiar with the spending said.

The win provides Initiative with another big chunk of Bayer business. The shop already handles media chores on the company's Consumer Care division, which spends about $250 million a year on ads.

The agency and Bayer declined to comment, but sources said shop staffers were informed of the win on Tuesday via e-mail.

Bayer HealthCare in July confirmed that a global creative consolidation push had begun. That process is ongoing. WPP, Omnicom and IPG shops all work on various aspects of that business.

Bayer HealthCare is the German pharmaceutical and chemical giant's biggest division, ringing up 46.8 percent of Bayer AG's total revenue, or $21.8 billion in sales, according to the 2008 annual report. The company said it spent $3.8 billion on overall marketing expenses in 2008. It could not be determined how much of that went to its global HealthCare operations.


Nielsen Business Media