BBVA picks WPP

The Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, or BBVA, has named the WPP Group to handle the banking corporation’s media planning and purchases plus digital platforms worldwide. Candidates in the selection process, which kicked off last February, were Havas Media of the Havas Group, the Publicis company’s ZenithOptimedia, Omnicom’s OMD, and WPP’s Mindshare.“The winning proposal showed its solidity in global management and the tools for optimizing investment while handling the digital and research areas,” said the BBVA press office in a statement. The WPP Group has vast experience in managing multinational accounts and has a solid presence in all markets where the finance company operates.The process was led by the Communication & Brand and Corporate Purchases divisions with the collaboration of Business Units and Legal Services. To develop the two selection processes, BBVA called on an international technical consultancy specializing in the advertising communications industry.BBVA started making its changes when it tabbed the Omnicom Group for its strategic and creative work based on the presentation by its multinational DDB Latina, which will be responsible for that work in all markets except Colombia and Mexico, where it will be entrusted to TBWA, and Venezuela, which goes to DDB partner the DLB Group, while worldwide coordination will be handled out of Madrid.