The contract, awarded to Carat, will help the government save 100 million pounds through tighter spending controls across public sector campaigning and "smarter purchasing", the Cabinet Office added.

The previous contract was held by M4C, a unit of British advertising group WPP. Dentsu Aegis Network is a unit of Japanese advertising group Dentsu .

The statement did not disclose the size of the contract.

(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

Stocks treated in this article : Dentsu Inc, WPP PLC