Edgewell has tapped Havas Media Group as U.S. media agency of record for its sun, shave, and hygiene business lines following a competitive seven- month review. The account was previously held by Assembly, which a spokesman for Edgewell said defended the account.

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Havas is assuming media planning and buying duties for a number of brands, including Schick Hydro, Xtreme, Schick Hydro Silk, Intuition, Skintimate, Banana Boat, Hawaiian Tropic and Wet Ones. 

“As a personal care company, we are deeply committed to connecting authentically with our consumers and creating products that bring them joy each day,” Stephanie Lynn, senior VP of North America e-commerce and commercial acceleration at Edgewell, said in a statement. “We are in a pivotal moment, and Havas Media is the perfect partner to transform our approach and take our work to the next level. With their impressive roster of clients and success in building some of the world’s most meaningful brands, I am excited for this partnership and our journey ahead.”

Team within a team

The account will be handled by Havas Media’s health and wellness practice formed last year. The practice now has 250 employees and manages AOR accounts for brands like Rite Aid, Bristol Myers Squibb and Sanofi.

Havas will create dedicated teams for each brand which will part of a larger integrated team for the portfolio of brands, according to Shane Ankeney, president, Havas Media Health, who said the agency’s focus on "meaningful media” helped it stand out.

“Meaningful media is media that, in this case, consumers find to be relevant, intellectual, meaningful things that actually they really want to spend time with,” Ankeney said. “In this day of bifurcated time and people having shorter attention spans, we find that when you invest in meaningful media that the consumer resonates with and they want to spend time with, your investment dollars have that much greater of an impact.”

Excludes Billie

Edgewell had worldwide advertising spending of $142.3 million in the fiscal year ended on Sept. 30, 2021, according to its 10-K filing. Edgewell during that fiscal year generated about 57% of its net sales from the U.S., which would imply U.S. ad spending was in the range of $81 million based on the company’s geographic sales split, according to Ad Age Datacenter.

While Havas will be working on shave brands its remit will not include Billie, a women’s personal care company that Edgewell acquired for $310 million in November after the Federal Trade Commission halted the sale of the direct-to-consumer shaving brand to Procter & Gamble in 2020. Part of the goal of the acquisition was for the online company to make a move into brick-and mortar retail. This week Billie launched a 30-second spot celebrating its internet success and debut in Walmart stores. Billie, which has historically handled its advertising in-house, will continue to use its “existing agencies” rather than Havas, a spokesperson for Edgewell said.

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This is the latest agency move for Edgewell. In 2020, the company named Digitas as its U.S. creative and media AOR for its feminine products which include Playtex, Carefree, Stayfree, and o.b. This moved some of the responsibilities from MullenLowe, which was named global creative agency in 2018 and still works on brands in the shaving and suncare divisions, according to a spokeswoman for the agency.