Cosmetics giant Estée Lauder is planning a global media review this year as part of a broader overhaul of its brand portfolio and turnaround strategy, according to a report in Campaign.
Globally, Estée Lauder spends around £500 million (A$987 million) on media for more than 20 brands including Estée Lauder, Clinique, MAC, La Mer, Jo Malone London, Origins, Bobbi Brown, Aveda and more.
The global review would be one of the larger pitches this year.
Estée Lauder works with multiple different agencies and holding companies throughout the world.
In Australia, OMD handles Estée Lauder’s off line media planning and buying, while Sparro by Brainlabs handles digital media.
Dentsu agencies iProspect and Carat work with the cosmetics company in the UK, while in EMEA and in North America S4 Capital agency Monks is the incumbent.
The review comes amid a profit recovery and growth plan that focuses on higher margin brands and regions.
In recent years, Estée Lauder Companies has faced significant pressure due to slow recovery in key markets like China.
In Q1, Estée Lauder returned to growth in the first quarter of FY26. Sales were up 4 per cent and profit increased 5 per cent year on year.
“We had a strong start to fiscal 2026 as we execute on our Beauty Reimagined strategy—returning to organic sales growth, gaining prestige beauty share in a few key strategic areas of focus, and improving profitability. Encouragingly, we are building momentum across the organisation from the significant operational changes we have executed to-date to be faster and more agile,” said president and CEO Stéphane de La Faverie.
“These results reinforce the confidence we have in our fiscal 2026 outlook—a pivotal year—as we restore organic sales growth and expand our operating margin for the first time in four years.”
