Six ad agencies remain in the fight to become Nokia’s new client

Ad Week:

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) will brief six semifinalists next Friday in the estimated $120 million-plus global review of its mobile phone business, sources said.

Those meetings will take place at client headquarters in Espoo, Finland. In the hunt are WPP Group’s Grey and Omnicom Group’s DDB, both roster shops, as well as independents Mother and Wieden + Kennedy, Publicis Groupe-backed Bartle Bogle Hegarty and WPP’s JWT, sources said.

After about three weeks worth of work sessions, the client will cut to a shortlist of finalists, sources said.

Grey, which has been on the Nokia roster since 1986, handles the client’s mobile phone advertising in the U.S. and Europe, while DDB has the account in Latin America. Grey also works on Nokia’s enterprise solutions account, and Interpublic Group’s Lowe handles Nokia’s multimedia account. Those businesses are not part of the review.

WPP’s Bates, a roster shop in Asia, was to team with sibling Ogilvy & Mather, but neither shop is going forward, sources said. WPP’s MediaCom handles the bulk of Nokia’s media planning and buying, but those duties are unaffected.

The company spent about $40 million-plus in U.S. media last year on ads for its mobile-phone advertising, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Overseas spending on advertising for its mobile phones is likely more than $80 million, sources said.

Here is hoping we get something new and fresh.

It’s difficult to create a good advertisement, much less a great one.