It’s been a year of great change within media, with business reviews and subsequent movements occurring left, right and centre for leading corporations. The latest sees Johnson & Johnson announce it has shifted media accounts from local firm OMD Australia to UM.
The $AU25 million account has been held by OMD for the past nine years, however, the shift to IPG’s UM account is the result of Johnson & Johnson launching a global agency review across the company’s consumer, pharmaceutical and medical device business and brands.
When asked what they were looking for in a media agency, Johnson & Johnson stated: “Our goal is to ensure we have the best media capability in strategy, planning and buying against evolved business strategies and marketing frameworks for Johnson & Johnson’s business sectors and brands around the world.”
The Johnson & Johnson account will sit within a dedicated division of UM called J3. In a statement, Johnson & Johnson explained that J3 will overlook media for “consumer goods, pharmaceuticals and medical-device segments in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, as well as the Asia-Pacific region.
“Throughout the review, each of our incumbent agencies demonstrated extraordinary commitment to the process, our people and business. With this new partnership, Johnson & Johnson will continue to drive leading media capabilities and we look forward to expanding our partnership with J3 around the world,” the beauty giant further commented.
This major news comes off the back of a recent revamp at fellow global corporation Unilever. Four months ago the company shifted its local media account, with the company today announcing top marketers Andrea Martens and Hugo Verkuil will both be exiting their roles. Martens is moving over to a role at Jurlique, while Verkuil has taken up another position within the company.
As a result of these movements, there will be an overhaul of Unilever’s marketing offerings that will see the roles merge into a single chief marketing officer position.
Unilever ANZ CEO Clive Stiff says of the news: “Together Andrea and Hugo have built a strong marketing function, embedding purpose in our brands as we work to double the size of our business globally while reducing our environmental impact and increasing our positive social impact. They leave us with a solid structure and capability in place. With these two moves happening at the same time, we will be merging their roles into one chief marketing officer role for Australia and New Zealand.”
