Kimberly-Clark Divides its Media and Creative Account Four Ways

Paper giant Kimberly-Clark completed its creative and media review, awarding part of the business to Interpublic Group (IPG), Omnicom, Publicis Groupe and WPP.

The global review began in October last year with the aim of consolidating Kimberly-Clark’s agency roster as part of its “Powering Care” strategy, a $1.5 billion restructuring program.

The Texas-based manufacturer behind Huggies, Kotex, Kleenex, Depend and Cottonelle, however, ended up awarding the work to agencies in four different holding groups.

In a brand statement, Kimberly-Clark has concluded its global RFP process for its creative and media agencies of record.

“We can confirm that we have shared our assignments as follows:

• For global creative work, IPG will assume our feminine care and family care brands, and WPP will assume our baby and children’s and adult care brands.
• For media work, Publicis will continue as a partner for our media business in the United States. They will also take Canada to provide holistic work for the media in North America.
• The Omnicom Group (OMG) consolidates media responsibilities for all markets outside of North America (excluding South Korea).

We are excited and eager to work with our partners going forward,” according to the statement.

All major holding companies previously had assignments from Kimberly-Clark. WPP GroupM lost the media account in 2023 as Publicis has taken over in the United States

Kimberly-Clark also works with numerous creative agencies outside of the major networks, including independents such as Quality meat and Mischief, and it is not clear if these relationships will continue. These agencies did not respond to ADWEEK’s request for comment in time for publication.

In May of last year, Kimberly-Clark called a Patricia Corsi, new director of growthsucceeding the retiring Alison Lewis. The brand has also started in-house its ad-tech contracts.

According to COMvergence, Kimberly-Clark’s estimated global average spending in 2024 was $511 million. Kimberly-Clark, in 2023, reported its global advertising expenditure of about $1.1 billion, with just over half of global sales coming from the United States.