MAM
P&G to realign advertising with Publicis, Grey
NEW YORK: The world’s biggest advertiser Procter & Gamble Co. on Friday announced a sweeping realignment of its $3.77 billion global agency roster that will end its decades-old relationship with Havas’ Arnold McGrath Worldwide.
P&G said it would be consolidating its business with Grey Global and Publicis Groupe and redistributes assignments of soon-to-be-shuttered D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles, mainly within Publicis.
The move by the consumer giant, whose brands include Tide laundry detergent, Bounty paper towels and Pampers diapers, was prompted by Publicis’ decision to shutter its struggling D’Arcy Massius Benton & Bowles agency earlier this year, reports say.
Publicis Worldwide will pick up two of P&G’s billion-dollar global tissue-towel brands, Bounty paper towels from Arnold McGrath and Charmin toilet paper from D’Arcy. It will also get Puffs facial tissues and Tempo dry wipes from D’Arcy, adageglobal.com has reported. Publicis’ Leo Burnett picks up Arnold’s Era account, which joins the Cheer and Gain brands already handled by the agency’s Toronto office. Overseas, Burnett also picks up the Fairy laundry detergent brand from D’Arcy.
Grey Global gets the rest of Arnold McGrath’s P&G business, including the global Zest personal wash account and Ace detergent in Europe. (Grey loses the Camay brand in Latin America to Burnett; Grey previously handled Ace bleach and sibling brands in Latin America.) Grey also picks up from D’Arcy Torengos tortilla chips, which, along with Pringles, will give it all of P&G’s snack business.
P&G, which spent $3.77 billion globally on advertising in the fiscal year ended in June, is the biggest client for both Paris-based Publicis and New York-based Grey Global, Reuters has reported. P&G’s 2001 US measured ad spending was $1.7 billion, according to CMR.
Brands
Estée Lauder to shed 10,000 jobs as new boss bets on digital shift
The cosmetics giant raises its profit outlook but stays silent on a possible merger with Spain’s Puig, as job cuts deepen and a three-year sales slump weighs on the turnaround
NEW YORK: Stéphane de La Faverie is not done cutting. Estée Lauder announced on Friday that it plans to eliminate as many as 3,000 additional jobs, taking its total redundancy programme to as many as 10,000 roles, up from a previous target of 7,000 announced a year ago. The company, which owns La Mer, The Ordinary, Tom Ford, and Aveda, employs roughly 57,000 people worldwide. The mathematics of what is now being contemplated is stark.
The fresh round of cuts is expected to generate a further $200 million in savings, bringing the total annual savings from the programme to as much as $1.2 billion before taxes. That money, De La Faverie has made clear, will be ploughed back into the turnaround.
A CEO in a hurry
De La Faverie, who took the helm in January 2025, inherited a company that had endured three consecutive years of annual sales declines. His response has been to move fast and cut deep. A significant portion of the latest redundancies reflects his push to reduce headcount at US department stores, long a cornerstone of Estée Lauder’s distribution model but now a channel in structural decline. In their place, he is accelerating the shift toward faster-growing online platforms, including Amazon.com and TikTok Shop, a pivot that is reshaping not just where Estée Lauder sells but how it thinks about its customers.
The numbers are moving in the right direction
Despite the pain, there are signs the medicine is working. Estée Lauder raised its profit outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year, guiding for adjusted earnings per share in the range of $2.35 to $2.45, above analyst estimates and a notable step up from the $2.05 to $2.25 range it had guided for in February. Organic net sales growth is expected to come in at 3 per cent, the company said, at the high end of the range it set out in February.
The share price tells a mixed story. After De La Faverie took charge, the stock surged nearly 60 per cent, buoyed by investor optimism that a longtime company insider could finally arrest the decline. But 2026 has been rougher: the shares have fallen 27 per cent this year, weighed down by disappointing February results and the overhang of unresolved merger talks with Spanish beauty giant Puig Brands SA. The company gave no additional details about those discussions on Friday, leaving the market to guess.
Silence on Puig
The proposed tie-up with Puig remains the most consequential unknown hanging over Estée Lauder. A deal with the Barcelona-based group, which owns brands including Carolina Herrera and Rabanne, would reshape the global luxury beauty landscape. But with nothing new to say and a turnaround still very much in progress, De La Faverie is asking investors to trust the process.
Three years of sales declines, 10,000 job cuts, and a merger that may or may not happen. At Estée Lauder, the overhaul has barely started.
