When Clorox Co. started a review of all its creative agencies last month, Senior VP-Chief Marketing Officer Eric Reynolds was quick to call Alma from his car and tell the U.S. Hispanic agency, its only creative shop in the world to get such a call, that the business Alma held was not up for review.
"For all their work, the results have been spectacular, both in [growing] share and the efficiency and effectiveness of their creative work," Mr. Reynolds said. "Our statisticians say, 'Whatever Alma is doing, it's working.'"
In fact, Mr. Reynolds said the agency is so good at developing universal truths that speak to all consumers that Alma's Hispanic work is increasingly crossing over into the general market.
In a joint project between Clorox and Procter & Gamble to launch Glad with Gain Odor-Shield trash bags, Alma used a lot of social media featuring "Gainiacs," real people who love the scent and ecstatically inhale it. The effort helped the product notch nearly $12 million in sales in the first 10 weeks and led Clorox to appoint Alma to lead two more total-market campaigns.
Even with low-interest categories like household cleaning products, Alma won more creative awards in 2015 than any other U.S. Hispanic agency. (Some were for Greenworks, an environmentally friendly Clorox cleaning line whose print ads feature adorable animals like a spotted owl with the tagline "Some stains are not meant to disappear.")