As we (sort of) predicted in an earlier post today, Clorox has resolved its creative review by sending its global account to FCB and its specialty brands (including Burt’s Bees, Hidden Valley, KC Masterpiece, Brita, Kingsford, Fresh Step and Scoop Away) to mcgarrybowen. This would appear to mean that Clorox will no longer work with DDB, Swirl, Baldwin& or Critical Mass–all of which formerly handled parts of its larger marketing business.
FCB will split the work between its Chicago and San Francisco offices moving forward. No word on which mcgarrybowen offices will be working on the specialty brands, which account for approximately 30 percent of the business involved in the review.
Here’s the internal memo that just went out from FCB global CEO Carter Murray.
Grateful.
That is how I feel. Towards every last person reading this note, because of your complete commitment to the Clorox review over the last four months: late nights, weekends, family occasions missed, meals skipped, rushes to meet deadlines, being always-on, never being satisfied with where we were, and always striving to improve every detail of our thinking and creative for this potential client.
When you pitch against networks like Grey, DDB and McGarryBowen, you need to be flawless in understanding the clients, flawless in getting the right solutions, and flawless in pitching your POV and ideas. And in any pitch, you are only as strong as your weakest link.
In pitching Clorox, we had 272 links… that’s how many people were involved in this global, four-month-long endeavor.
That’s why I don’t want to call anyone out by name. We win together and we lose together. And every one of you reading this knows, individually, the role that you played.
This Clorox review has been a special experience. We got to know clients who passionately believe that their brands make a difference in the world, who in the pitch process were looking for like-minded people and talent that will help many of their storied brands move forward to the next step of their journeys with great strategic thinking and inspiring work.
As an agency, we also are looking for like-minded people in or clients. Clients who are looking for real partnership. Clients who love and appreciate what creative talent can do and how that talent can take us all to places we never imagined. Clients who take the time and show the attentiveness to thank the teams at every step for their efforts. Clients who care as much about our people as their own people and business. We are lucky enough to have some clients like this already in our agency.
And today I am pleased to share with you that we have a new global partner and client like that in Clorox!
We have been appointed the worldwide lead creative agency for their Clorox Home Division products, including Clorox-branded products (bleach, wipes, etc.), Glad, Liquid Plumber, Green Works, Pine-Sol and international brands Ayudín and Poett. This is a huge win for our agency! Congrats to the whole team! Some smaller, wonderful specialty brands that were pitched separately will be handled by another agency, but the lion’s share of the global business that was pitched will now be managed by FCB… a huge responsibility that I know we can deliver on, because I know our passion for what we do and for this client will help make certain that we do.
So many offices contributed to this effort and and core to the agency moving forward will be a team built from our offices in San Francisco and Chicago that will work with the whole network.
And, of course, we need to celebrate! More on that soon!
Please keep this information confidential for now, and know that this news is in the process of being shared properly through formal channels.
I want to finish where I started.
Grateful.
It’s a word that sums up how I feel to work with such an incredibly talented group of people every day, and who are so committed to our clients and our agency. We want to create a culture where we all help each other to be successful, and I could feel this throughout this process… a talented, dedicated team of FCBers around the world all committed to helping each other win, believing that we can make a difference for our clients.
This is a big global win for us that you deserve all the credit for… thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!!!
Carter