Kimberly-Clark splits global creative and media among Interpublic, Omnicom, Publicis and WPP

Kimberly-Clark has wrapped its massive global creative and media review, splitting responsibilities between Interpublic Group of Cos., Omnicom Group, Publicis Groupe and WPP. Omnicom Media Group won the global media account except for North America and South Korea, while WPP picked up creative duties for all of K-C’s adult care and childcare brands. IPG nabbed creative duties for family care and feminine care brands. Read Ad Age’s 2025 predictions stories here The review, designed to consolidate the company’s agency roster, was a part of the company’s Powering Care strategy. Powering Care is a $1.5 billion restructuring program Kimberly-Clark launched last year. K-C’s adult care brands include Depend, Poise and Plenitud. Its child care brands include Huggies, Pull-Ups, GoodNites and more. The company’s family care portfolio includes Kleenex, Cottonelle, Scott and Andrex. Its feminine product brands include Kotex and Intimus, among others. IPG, Omnicom, Publicis and WPP each had creative or media assignments with the company globally prior to the review. The U.S. media account, which Publicis nabbed in September 2023, was excluded from this review. Media giants OMG and WPP’s Mindshare handled the company’s brands elsewhere, and Omnicom appears to have picked up business from Mindshare outside the U.S. Recent news: Top account reviews of 2024 WPP appears to have gained significantly on creative, reclaiming child care business, including Huggies, that was lost to Accenture and Droga5 in 2019, but losing media duties outside the U.S. after losing the U.S. business to Publicis Media in 2023. Publicis held onto the U.S. business, and picked up the Canada account “to provide holistic work for North America media,” according to a K-C statement. Omnicom may be the biggest net winner in picking up global media duties. IPG, Publicis and WPP deferred calls for comment to K-C. Omnicom could not immediately be reached for comment. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs K-C previously had hundreds of agency partners globally, according to sources. For example, Quality Meats and Droga5 had recently worked on the Huggies account, VaynerMedia has managed some recent projects for Scott and Mischief @ No Fixed Address recently launched a campaign for Kotex. It was not immediately clear whether K-C would continue to work with any previous agency partners. Mischief deferred calls for comment to K-C. Droga5, Accenture, VaynerMedia and Quality Meats could not be immediately reached for comment. In December, Publicis’ Leo Burnett rolled out a rebranding campaign for Pull-Ups training pants brand centered around poop and pee emoji. At that time, a K-C spokesperson told Ad Age that the project didn’t indicate a permanent assignment. Read more: Behind the Pull-Ups rebrand from Leo Burnett K-C previously reported 2023 global advertising spending of about $1.1 billion, with 50.7% of its worldwide sales coming from the U.S. The company had estimated 2023 U.S. ad spending of $545 million, per Ad Age Datacenter, with $215 million in U.S. measured media spending in the first three quarters of 2024 and $285 million in measured spending in full-year 2023, according to MediaRadar. In May, K-C named former Bayer Consumer Health executive Patricia Corsi as its chief growth officer, replacing Alison Lewis, who retired from the company.

Kimberly-Clark splits global creative and media among Interpublic, Omnicom, Publicis and WPP

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