London-based consumer goods giants Unilever has teamed up with US-based intermediary MediaLink in a formal, global digital agency review in an effort to (seemingly) completely revamp its global digital roster. Agencies who are currently on Unilever's digital roster include Ogilvy & Mather, Razorfish, Engine, R/GA, Lowe Profero, Weber Shandwick and Edelman. Many of these agencies, and other incumbents, have been invited to participate in the review alongside a brace of non-incumbent agencies across various agency holding companies. They will be presenting their strategies in mid-August, starting a long process that probably won't be wrapped up until the end of the year.
Agencies who are currently on Unilever's digital roster include Ogilvy & Mather, Razorfish, Engine, R/GA, Lowe Profero, Weber Shandwick and Edelman
Keith Weed, Unilever's chief marketing and communications officer, hinted at a debate held at Cannes earlier this year, at a need to integrate Unilever's digital agency network. He said that “Mobile agencies will offer a 110% solution for mobile or social, but what I want is a 110% solution for the brand – even if it’s only 85% mobile.” He reiterated the need for integration in a recent piece for Marketing Magazine, where he said agencies needed to “Retake the initiative of leading the multi-agency approach, even if all the agencies are not in their holding company.” He feels that “building a network of close working relationships” will prioritise the brands' interests, and insisted that an integrated approach is the only way to “Build brands at scale.”
Keith Weed
In December last year, Unilever announced plans to cut its worldwide marketing force by 12%, which equate to over 800 people. It was also stressed that they would continue to trim agency and commercial production fees, which is not surprising considering Unilever appear to have been in a perpetual state of trimmage since Paul Polman became CEO back in 2009. Even with these dramatic cuts, the company still managed to spend $1.29 billion in advertising last year, which might have gone some way towards the Q2 results it posted earlier this month, which revealed an underlying sales growth of 3.8%. Even so, this still failed to reach analysts' expectations of 4.3%. Unilever and MediaLink have both thus far declined to comment.
Keith Weed, Unilever's chief marketing and communications officer, hinted at a debate held at Cannes earlier this year, at a need to integrate Unilever's digital agency network
The review followers a US-focused digital agency roster evaluation for Unilever, a process which has now been folded into the larger pitch. The last time MediaLink worked with Unilever was back in 2012 in a media review where the company decided to keep its US media buying at WPP and award a global media planning assignment to the Omnicom Group's PHD.
Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and musician from Kidderminster in the UK. He's still trying to get his head around what $1.29 billion would actually look like.
