With Coca-Cola naming WPP as its global marketing network partner for its $4 billion business, rival PepsiCo’s business, which is also represented by WPP in markets like India, will need to be clarified, industry executives said.

“We are awaiting further clarity on the development,” a PepsiCo India spokesperson said in a revert to ET’s query. India is among the few countries where WPP group agencies represent PepsiCo.

Both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are big spenders on advertising, and spends are expected to further increase as they gear up for next summer after two consecutive Covid-19 waves.

One possibility could be two separate agencies within the WPP group working on the rival cola accounts in India, or PepsiCo aligning with another group, executives said.

WPP won the Coca-Cola business following one of the largest pitches of the year, which included IPG, Dentsu and Publicis also pitching for the account. Coca-Cola said on Monday that WPP will be its “global marketing network partner” operating under a bespoke unit called OpenX, and added that the WPP team will manage creative, media, data and marketing technology across Coca-Cola’s entire portfolio of brands and its global ventures, including Costa coffee.

Coca-Cola said its relationship with WPP is “unprecedented” in its breadth and depth, as well as for the industry “given its geographical scale and reach.”

“Consumers respond to an entire experience – they don’t separate the message from the medium – and that’s why we’ve designed an agency model to be truly consumer-centric and silo-free,” said Coca-Cola global chief marketing officer Manolo Arroyo said in a statement.

Dentsu has been named a “complementary media partner”, to represent Coca-Cola in certain geographies. Coca-Cola’s account moves away from IPG.

The beverage giant also appointed Dentsu as a complementary media partner as part of its new, integrated agency model…