NEW DELHI: Social networking colossus Facebook's global media account worth $750 million is up for review. The pitch is being managed by ID Comms and several holding companies have been invited to participate in the review process; Mindshare and Dentsu are the incumbents in the fray. 

The pitch includes media planning and buying across Facebook’s family of apps -- Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Messenger. 

According to data available in the public domain, Facebook spent an estimated $650 million on media globally last year, all of which was handled by GroupM’s Mindshare.

Considered the biggest social media platform in the world, Facebook is also a massive advertiser. A recent report published in AdAge had suggested that Facebook increased its ad spends by 43 per cent in 2020. Recently, the Mark Zuckerberg-owned company has directed this budget to a campaign urging support for targeted advertising, as it could help small businesses to reach their customers. 

Meanwhile, in the course of time, Facebook has split its business between different agencies for the company's various apps. It includes Ogilvy (Instagram), Wieden + Kennedy (Facebook), Leo Burnett (Messenger), BBDO (WhatsApp), and Droga5 (corporate brand). 

Apart from these agencies, Facebook's internal agency Creative X is also working across brands. 

By pitching the global media account for review, Facebook aims to reconsider its agency models in the aftermath of the Covid2019 pandemic. 

In an attempt to streamline its agency roster, Coca-Cola had put its $4 billion creative and media account up for review. Unilever had also thrown open its global media agency roster, and it is expected to be one of the largest pitches of the year. 

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, major account shifts have happened in the business, and more biggies are expected to reconsider their agency models in the coming weeks as the world slowly gets back on the recovery track.