Major Digital Advertiser AT&T Hands All Media Duties to MEC

Mediaedge:cia has triumphed over Omnicom’s OMD, GSD&M’s Idea City, and Publicis’s Digitas in the agency shootout for 100 percent control of AT&T’s estimated $3.4 billion media account. The business comes with a hefty digital ad budget, as AT&T Wireless has consistently ranked among the top ten online advertisers in the U.S.

In July 2007, AT&T Wireless ranked 11th among online advertisers with $7.4 million in media spending. A month earlier it ranked 9th with $7.7 million. Web expenditures for the remainder of its businesses, including its landline services, don’t show up on TNS’s list of the top 50 U.S. advertisers.

Winner MEC already had control of a goodly portion of AT&T’s digital spend prior to the win, having handled all planning and buying for AT&T Wireless since its acquisition of Bellsouth/Cingular. Before that it handled Cingular’s account. According to reports, GSD&M had handled media buying for the landline services and Digitas had some digital responsibilities.