Publicis Takes PepsiCo's Entire Media Account — and Walks Away From Coke

The biggest media decision of the year was also a decision about which client you cannot keep. PepsiCo has appointed Publicis Groupe to run its global media account, and the French holdco is expected to withdraw from the pitch for the rest of Coca-Cola's global media business as a result.

The structure is the point. PepsiCo is calling it the "One PepsiCo" model: strategy, planning, activation, connected identity and technology folded into a single AI- and data-led operating system serving the full portfolio — Pepsi, Gatorade, Lay's — across more than 200 markets.

The money behind that mandate is substantial. PepsiCo's most recent annual report puts marketing spend at $5.4 billion for 2025, with $3.4 billion of it in advertising. Consolidating that under one roof is less an agency appointment than an infrastructure choice.

Which explains the exit. Publicis already handles Coca-Cola media in the US and Canada, and the remainder of Coke's global review — run by MediaSense and estimated at around $4 billion — was the other prize on the table. You cannot credibly build a single connected data spine for one cola company while doing the same for its only real rival.

For the rest of the holding company field, the read is uncomfortable: the largest CPG media accounts are no longer being won on price or creative chemistry. They are being won on whether an agency can act as the client's data layer. That is a much harder thing to pitch, and a much harder thing to lose.