Kimberly-Clark launches global creative review
Kimberly-Clark, the parent company of brands including Huggies, Kleenex and Cottonelle, has launched a review of its creative agencies.
The packaged goods giant has long worked with WPP on creative, partnering with agencies including Ogilvy & Mather, JWT and VML, although it has also tapped independent shops like Chicago-based VSA Partners for work in recent years.
In a statement, the Texas-based company remained mum as to why it launched the review.
“Kimberly-Clark is assessing the current agency landscape for creative services. We regularly review our agency relationships, global and local, to ensure that we remain in touch with the latest capabilities in the industry. Beyond that, we would not be able to comment further on the status or scope of our agency relationships,” said a company spokesperson.
The review marks another hit to WPP, which has been on the defense this week due to a poor earnings report that sent its stock plunging. The holding company has also faced criticism for its gender pay gap report in the UK, which revealed there is currently a 14.6% pay discrepancy between men and women at agencies with 250 staffers or more. JWT, AKQA and Grey were the worst offenders.
Consolidation has also been a theme at WPP, as five of its branding agencies formed Superunion earlier this year, and longstanding PR firms Burson-Marsteller and Cohn & Wolfe combined earlier this week.