World: New-business analysis - FMCG media reviews bolster global new business.

There's been a key change in how global new business is won. Lucy Aitken reports.

Group pitches are in vogue. First it was HSBC and Nestle, then Samsung followed suit. So an eye-watering dollars 4.6 billion of new business will be decided at group, not network, level in the next few weeks.

The benefits of group-led pitches to clients are clear in a world where buzzwords such as 'integration' and 'efficiencies of scale' are bandied around board-rooms.

The other characteristic of this month's table is the cluster of huge media reviews, with Procter & Gamble's being typically titanic.

The table includes accounts worth at least dollars 50 million, though several pitches are underway for less substantial pieces of business. In the US, many big agencies are chasing small accounts, which, in real terms, translate into negligible income.

Alongside government accounts and charities, telecoms are lively sectors in Europe right now. McCann's dollars 300 million Verizon Wireless win and Fallon's BT win prove just what big spenders telecoms have become. And UK retailers are tipped for movement in the coming months, with question-marks hanging over certain supermarkets' agency arrangements.

In the US, Safeway selected Berlin Cameron/Red Cell without a pitch following project work by the agency. Speculation over what Safeway will do in the UK, following its takeover by Morrisons, is likely to intensify.