Kimberly-Clark calls global creative agency review

Kimberly-Clark Corporation (KCC) has launched a global creative agency review in a bid to restructure the roster of agencies it works with to manage the marketing of its brands.In a statement to Marketing, KCC's spokesperson said it regularly reviews its agency relationships, global and local, to ensure it remains in touch with the latest capabilities in the industry. It declined to comment further on Marketing's queries. The review comes at a time when its main competitors Unilever and Procter & Gamble, are slashing digital spend by hundreds of millions.Marketing has reached out to WPP for comments on the agencies that are working with KCC in the region. According to Adweek, KCC has worked with several WPP agencies including Ogilvy and J. Walter Thompson. Ogilvy's president of global brand management, Jaime Prieto, is responsible for WPP's Kimberly-Clark portfolio.KCC also recently appointed Tarun Raman as regional marketing director for the Asia Pacific region last year, replacing Rahul Asthana who has taken on a new role in Australia. Raman is responsible for the baby care segment. It also appointed MEC to handle regional media duties and the markets initially involved in the pitch were Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. Mindshare, which was previously the incumbent on those markets, still holds global media duties.The global creative review follows the release of WPP's financial results last week, where it said 2017 “was not a pretty year”. According to CEO of WPP, Sir Martin Sorrell, the major factors influencing this performance were probably the long-term impact of technological disruption and more the short-term focus of zero-based budgeters, activist investors and private equity.