Hasta La Creative!

Walmart ended its relationship with The Martin Agency today after nearly a decade. CEO Matt Williams announced the loss in all all-staff meeting this morning.

A Martin Agency spokesperson writes, “As of September, we will no longer be working with Walmart on their advertising. We’ve worked with them since 2007 and are very proud of the work we’ve done together and wish them the best.”

This news supports an AdAge report from earlier today indicating that Publicis Groupe has created a new, as yet unnamed entity to handle all of the monster retail chain’s creative and in-store advertising.

The Martin Agency first won the Walmart business in January 2007 as part of a review that also saw the media portion of the account go to Publicis Groupe’s MediaVest.

There was no review in this case, and the decision did not concern Walmart’s media account, which went to WPP’s GroupM in March after the arrival of CMO Tony Rodgers (who had run the company’s business in China). MediaVest subsequently laid off more than 80 employees in a move that representatives strongly implied was not related to the Walmart loss.

Saatchi & Saatchi will now apparently inherit the majority of Walmart’s creative work. The Publicis agency became a Walmart roster shop after winning a review in late 2013 and launched its first campaign in February 2014 as part of an Olympics tie-in.

That news came only months after Andy Murray, founder and former CEO of shopper marketing division Saatchi & Saatchi X, joined the Arkansas-based company as SVP of creative. He currently retains that title. Walmart initially brought on Saatchi & Saatchi X in 2006 to handle in-store and shopper marketing, with the agency eventually becoming something resembling a dedicated shop.

Representatives for Walmart and Publicis Groupe have not yet responded to our requests for comment.

The chain spent nearly a billion dollars on measured media last year according to Kantar Media.