In the release of their preliminary 2009 results WPP and it’s chief Sir Martin Sorrell referred to the past year as being “very difficult” and a “game of two halves”.

London based digital agency, Essence, has been awarded the creative and media planning duties for Expedia across Europe.

Knight Frank, the residential and commercial estate agency, has handed Starcom its media planning and buying duties without a pitch

Interpublic Group, parent agency to McCann Erickson, Universal McCann and Initiative, announced fourth quarter results including an 8.2% decline in revenue attributed to the economic downturn.

Cheshire based integrated marketing agency, Frank The Agency, has ceased trading.

UK media agency Maxus has been awarded planning and buying duties for British Telecom.

Publicis Groupe have reported annual earnings for 2009 revealing a drop in profit at the global agency group of 9.8%.

Bayer, the global pharmaceutical’s company whose brands include Berocca and Aspirin, has appointed WPP’s GroupM to handle it’s media account in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Unilever have announced that Mindshare will retain the conglomerates media planning and buying duties for Western Europe, worth £700 million annually.

The UK Government’s Central Office of Information, the largest advertiser in the UK with a media spend of £250m, is set to hand over it’s media buying duties to M4C, part of the Group M agency stable.