Dive Brief:
- Kraft Foods Group is likely to join other major brands in this year’s unprecedented reviewageddon, Adweek reported citing sources with knowledge of the matter.
- Kraft Foods has been under internal fire after the merger that formed The Kraft Heinz Co., and has the seen the loss of 2,500 jobs, including some at the top of the division’s marketing team.
- It’s not certain if the review is for worldwide marketing or just North American, but Kraft Foods spent just under $514 million in the U.S. last year.
Dive Insight:
Kraft Foods Group is under some spending fire under its new structure after the Kraft Heinz merger earlier this summer. After the merger the management team remained largely Heinz-dominated, including the elimination of the CMO role, and Kraft Foods just shed an additional 2,500 jobs. Although the announcement isn’t official, it’s expected that the division will also be reviewing its media relationships, including with the incumbent Starcom of the Publicis Groupe. The review might impact its global marketing, or just North American media, but would add another major brand to this year’s “reviewageddon” list of large companies seeking better deals with major agency partners.
All the cost-cutting measures aren’t an industry surprise given Kraft’s media budget outstripped its new partner in Heinz over ten times, and the investment groups behind the merger – Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital – are known for cutting costs.
The trend is shaking the ad agency world, putting $26 billion in global ad spending under review.
