Kimberly-Clark, which owns Kleenex, Cottonelle, Huggies and other household and personal care brands, has appointed an integrated Publicis team to lead U.S. media planning and buying starting in 2024, a spokeswoman confirmed.

The decision was made following a competitive review that was reported in March. The account was previously handled by WPP’s Mindshare.

The account will be handled by a bespoke solution called K-C One, which includes Epsilon, Spark Foundry and Profitero. The appointment is an expansion of Kimberly-Clark’s relationship with Publicis, as it had already been working with Epsilon. 

“The shifts in the media landscape and consumer behavior created an opportunity to re-assess our integrated media ecosystem and the requirements needed to accelerate media’s contribution to business growth,” Luke Kigel, Kimberly-Clark's North American VP of marketing capabilities, said in a statement. “We are excited to bring K-C One on board as they will be a key enabler to improving the performance of our marketing investment.”

The client declined to comment on the review beyond the statement provided. Publicis referred the comment to the client. Mindshare wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Kigel joined Kimberly-Clark in May from Walgreens, where he headed both the media buying side of the business and the retail media network. He’d previously worked under Alison Lewis, now chief growth officer of K-C, on media when she was chief marketer of Johnson & Johnson.

Kimberly-Clark spent $901 million on global advertising expenses in 2022, according to a regulatory filing. The U.S. accounts for a big chunk of that spending. In 2022, it spent $284 million in measured media according to Vivvix, including paid social data from Pathmatics, down slightly from the $304 million spent in 2021. 

Outside the U.S., OMG handles EMEA media for Kimberly-Clark and Mindshare handles the business in parts of Asia. It’s unclear if global relationships will also change moving forward.

Contributing: Jack Neff