Four agencies are involved in the pitch for the £15 million (€19 million) Diageo media account: MCM, AIM / Carat, Zenith and Initiative media.
The account is the biggest in the State and has so far been split between several agencies.
Diageo was formed after the merger with Guinness and Grand Metropolitan and the agency that wins the account will be buying £10 million worth of media for all Guinness brands and £5 million on several other brands owned by the group, including United Distillers brands.
All agencies involved in the pitch have signed confidentiality clauses so details on even who is pitching have been slow to emerge.
Pitching starts in early September and the account is likely to be awarded before the end of that month. If AIM / Carat loses out to MCM, the media-buying wing of McConnells, it will lose its position as the number one media shop. In a move that is thought to be unrelated to the pitch, AIM / Carat has recruited Eamonn Sexton to set up a specialist outdoor media agency.
Mr Sexton was Guinness Ireland's media controller for the past eight years and as such was a client of AIM which has already a substantial part of the Guinness media account. The agency expects the new outdoor division will be buying about £6 million of outdoor during its first year.
