IPC Awards £10 Million Account To Walker and Mediacom

IPC Magazines has awarded its £10 million media planning and buying account to Walker Media and Mediacom TMB. Media was previously split between the incumbent agencies Zenith and CIA. Zenith took care of the woman’s weeklies, and CIA Medianetwork focused on the TV weeklies, music and sports group.

Under the new contracts Walker Media will work on the Music & Sports group of IPC, and Mediacom TMB will concentrate on the Women’s Weeklies, SouthBank and Country & Leisure groups. This is effective from next month.

The publisher announced a restructuring at the beginning of the year, which resulted in the loss of about 200 jobs. The group also stated that it intended to increase its marketing expenditure by 25% in order to increase copy sales (see Newsline).

IPC’s short listed agencies for the account included, MGM, CIA and Zenith, as well as the successful agencies. Marketing director at IPC, Philippa Brown, commented: “This was a very difficult and important decision for us. All five media agencies produced excellent pitches, but we felt that Walker Media and Mediacom demonstrated the strategic edge on our brands and pushed the boundaries of media thinking just that little bit further.

“We did consider centralisation as an option, but given the new IPC publishing structure of five separate limited companies, we felt that it would not add any great benefits to our business.”

IPC recently announced the launch of two new titles: the men’s title Later (see Newsline), and a new gardening magazine called New Eden (see Newsline).

IPC Magazines: 0171 261 6575