Kimberly-Clark has reportedly launched a global creative and media review designed to consolidate its agency roster.
According to “multiple people close to the situation” that spoke to Ad Age, Kimberly-Clark (which owns brands such as Kleenex, Huggies and Andrex among others) is looking to pit the top holdcos against each other.
The review covers the entire world, save for the US media portion which was won by Publicis last year. Locally, Kimberly-Clark’s media is run by GroupM’s Mindshare. The agency declined to comment when reached by B&T.
The creative side is run on a brand-by-brand basis. Interpublic’s R/GA had worked on the Kleenex and VIVA brands, for instance. WPP creative shops Ogilvy and VML had also worked on some of Kimberly-Clark’s brands.
Ad Age reckons Publicis, WPP, Omnicom Group and Interpublic are believed to be participating in the pitch. Each has existing creative or media assignments with Kimberly-Clark globally. Reps from each holdco declined to comment to Ad Age.
“Kimberly-Clark is in the process of conducting a global RFP for media and creative duties (excluding our US media business),” a Kimberly-Clark spokesman said in a statement to Ad Age.
“This is part of the implementation of our Powering Care strategy. We are doing this to better serve our brands and our evolving organizational structure.”
Powering Care is a $US1.5 billion ($AU2.28 billion) restructuring program Kimberly-Clark launched earlier this year. Kimberly-Clark expects to complete the review by the end of 2024, the spokesman said.
It would certainly be a big account for anyone to pick up. According to its latest annual report, Kimberly-Clark spent $1.1 billion on advertising ($AU1.68 billion).
