Clorox changes CMOs as Reynolds moves up, DDB veteran takes his place

Clorox Co. is getting a new chief marketing officer effective Jan. 7 – Stacey Grier, 55, who joined the company just two years ago from DDB, San Francisco. Current CMO Eric Reynolds, 48, a 20-year Clorox veteran, is getting promoted up a notch from senior to executive vice president, overseeing Clorox's core cleaning business as well as Burt's Bees. He'll continue to report to CEO Benno Dorer in his new role. The moves come amid a broader shakeup for the Oakland, Calif.-based company, which spent $550 million last year on advertising in the U.S., according to the Ad Age Datacenter. Dawn Willoughby, current chief operating officer, will leave effective Jan. 4, Clorox said. Linda Rendle, 40, currently executive vice president of Cleaning and Strategy, will move up to executive vice president of strategy and operations. She'll report to Dorer, and Grier will in turn report to her. Grier came to Clorox just over two years ago from DDB, where she was chief strategic officer. That move followed DDB losing its longtime Clorox account after a review headed by Reynolds consolidated creative work primarily with FCB and McGarryBowen/Dentsu. Grier is a 20-year veteran of the advertising industry in San Francisco, having also worked with Clorox during a prior role at FCB when that agency handled work for the company in San Francisco in the 1990s. At Clorox, she joined as vice president-brand and marketing strategy. In October she added responsibility for Enhanced Wellness Marketing, overseeing marketing for the Nutranext and RenewLife businesses. Her corporate-wide work previously involved leading channel, content and commerce activation, the company said. In a statement, Dorer said Reynolds "has focued the organization on the evolution toward human-centered, purpose-driven brands enabled by technology and data." That has included a steady shift toward digital spending, which Clorox projects will account for more than half its media spending for the fiscal year begun July 1, and toward more precision marketing based on a first-party database with more than 100 million people.

Clorox changes CMOs as Reynolds moves up, DDB veteran takes his place

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