The pitch for Priceline's $13 million main media account has been whittled down to two agencies, with incumbent Media Merchants out of the running, AdNews understands.
PHD and Initiative are now battling it out to take the business, which went out to review in November with up to five agencies on the shortlist, before being whittled down to three.
Trinity P3 is understood to be handling the pitch process.
Media Merchants, a full-service agency with offices in Brisbane and Sydney, recently opened a Melbourne outpost headed up by Woody Reid, formerly in charge of sponsorship sales at Fox Footy.
According to Nielsen, Priceline spent $13.3 million on main media advertising in calendar 2013.
*Updated: Trinity P3 CEO Darren Woolley says no decision has been made and all agencies remain in the running.
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