ikea is beginning the North American consolidation of its advertising business with a review of media buying agencies.
Joakim Gip, North American marketing manager, says he is looking at media companies that have both u.s. and Canadian counterparts to handle the business.
Media Buying Services of Toronto, now affiliated with the worldwide network of Grey Advertising through a joint venture called The Media Company/MBS, currently has the Canadian assignment, while Deutsch Media of New York takes care of the u.s. business.
Gip says there will be further consolidation involving the various creative portions of the business, but he is not in a rush to complete the process.
He says he wants to treat the North American market as a collection of individual markets, divided or held together by values rather than geographic boundaries.
‘From my viewpoint, there is more similarity between Toronto, Vancouver, Los Angeles and New York than there is between Toronto and Calgary,’ says Gip.
‘So we’re trying to see North America market by market and find similarities between big and small markets.’
Gip is considering assigning ikea’s existing North American agencies different sub-concepts of the business.
In Canada, this includes the retail stores, the catalogue and Home Shopping, which are handled by Roche Macaulay & Partners, and IKEA Office and the IKEA Family loyalty program, which are with Ammirati Puris Lintas. Both are Toronto agencies.
