Unilever consolidates global beauty creative duties with WPP

Unilever has consolidated creative and strategic duties for its beauty brands globally with WPP, the marketer confirmed. The holding company already had responsibility for some of Unilever’s biggest brands, including Dove and Vaseline, largely via Ogilvy. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs The consolidation means WPP will pick up work for Tresemme, Sunsilk, Simple, Nexxus, Shea Moisture, Clear and Pond’s in the U.S. or globally and continue prior work on Vaseline. Interpublic Group of Companies, Omnicom Group and Brandtech Group’s Oliver had handled creative duties on those brands previously in all or parts of the world. Oliver continues to staff Unilever’s U-Studio in-house creative operations around the world, including for beauty brands, the company confirmed following the publication of this story. New campaign: Dove celebrates 67 years of its Beauty Bar WPP declined to comment. Representatives of IPG, Omnicom and Brandtech either did not respond to requests for comment or weren’t able to reach executives for comment by deadline. In the U.S., WPP will pick up brands that had U.S. media spending of $36 million in 2023 and $17 million in the first quarter of 2024, per Vivvix, which includes paid social data from Pathmatics. WPP already handled Unilever beauty brands with $100 million in 2023 spending and $28 million in spending in the first quarter of 2024 in the U.S. But key parts of the global assignment—Sunsilk and Clear—are major Unilever brands outside the U.S. Agency Review Tracker Stay up to date with the latest account reviews Click here The move comes as Unilever is in the home stretch of a global media review where the standing of WPP’s GroupM as the consumer goods company’s predominant global agency is at risk. Unilever and GroupM have been compatriots in an unwanted conflict of late, as executives of both companies were questioned by the House Judiciary Committee over their involvement with the World Federation of Advertisers’ now-shuttered Global Alliance for Responsible Media. Unilever is a co-defendant, along with the WFA, in a lawsuit by X filed last week alleging antitrust violations in steering money away from the platform. WPP, GroupM and WFA are co-defendants in a similar lawsuit filed simultaneously in the same North Texas federal court by the creator content platform Rumble. See all of the 2024 Small Agency award winners here

Unilever consolidates global beauty creative duties with WPP

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