Grey Awarded Global Agency of Record Duties on Herbal Essences Without a Review

By Patrick Coffee 

Today in Old But Still Relevant News, P&G moved its Herbal Essences account from Wieden + Kennedy to Grey last year.

The WPP shop has been global agency of record on the business for the past several months after W+K and the client parted ways amid a string of consolidations on the P&G side that also included Secret going from Leo Burnett to W+K and BBDO losing the company’s grooming brands to Grey in 2015. As we understand it, Grey has not yet released its first full campaign for the brand but plans to do so at some point this year.

Herbal Essences initially went to Wieden without a review in 2013 after more than 6 years with Leo Burnett’s Atelier.

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Spokespeople for both Grey and Wieden + Kennedy deferred to the client, which provided the following statement:

“…the Herbal Essence business was awarded to Grey New York effective July 1st 2016. This decision is consistent with P&G’s broader agency consolidation effort. Wieden + Kennedy remains a close and important P&G partner working on Old Spice, Secret, and Olympics.”

Sources claim that the decision was mutual between P&G and W+K, though we also hear that the move was based on Grey’s past work promoting Pantene for more than 20 years.

Herbal Essences may remain best known for the “Totally Organic Experience” tagline, which was developed by Linda Kaplan Thaler‘s shop in 1994 and retired 10 years later before Leo Burnett took over the account.

It is still a major P&G brand. According to the latest numbers from Kantar Media, the parent company spent approximately $17 million on paid media promoting the shampoo in North America in 2015 and $16.2 million from January to September of last year. Kantar does not provide global spending numbers.

In other Grey news, the agency had to part with a small number of additional staffers over the holiday season after AT&T moved its DirecTV business to BBDO; those who were let go will remain on payroll through January.

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