Helping Shell transform its global media approach

Objectives

Shell’s global marketing teams manage multiple business sectors (Brand, Mobility, Lubricants, Retail Energy) across a complex, matrixed organisation. Their 20-year relationship with a single agency of record had become less aligned with evolving business needs. The company aimed to:

• Enhance its global operating model to unify brand, media, and procurement teams across diverse markets
• Improve transparency and governance in media investments
• Manage confidentiality and minimise business disruption during a complex agency review and transition

Our Approach

Operating Model Analysis

• Conducted extensive surveys and interviews to identify existing strengths and challenges
• Streamlined roles, responsibilities, and decision pathways, aligning global and local teams under a single-network model

Comprehensive Pitch & Agency Selection

• Designed a multi-round RFI/RFP process assessing each agency’s capabilities, culture, and fit
• Employed our technology platform to validate media cost guarantees across multiple countries, ensuring reliable savings

Staffing & Remuneration Strategy

• Co-developed market-specific staffing plans to match Shell’s strategic needs
• Delivered an enhanced agency operating model in line with Shell’s objectives

Contract & Transition Management

• Created clear scorecards and evaluation criteria, promoting transparency
• Integrated guarantee-validation clauses into contracts to protect Shell’s media value
• Oversaw a structured transition plan, ensuring continuity and safeguarding confidentiality

Business Impact

By partnering with Ebiquity, Shell has streamlined its global media framework, reduced costs substantially, and strengthened internal governance – creating a more efficient, accountable approach to media investment. Together, we achieved:

• 30% total media cost savings from Shell’s prior baseline
• Optimised the agency operating model driving global efficiency in alignment with brand objectives
• A revamped global operating model, balancing central oversight with local market needs
• Smoother stakeholder alignment through well-defined roles and responsibilities
• Shell’s first global agency shift in two decades, concluded seamlessly and securely