In what marks a sweeping change in the way it pulls together its many promotional campaigns, Procter & Gamble Co. is retooling how it works with marketing, design, and public relations firms.

The program, launched as a pilot in 2007 and expected to dramatically expand this year, boils the number of discussions, contacts, and point people per brand from dozens to a handful. And it combines the talent of the scores of agencies with which P&G works, from television to print to digital, into one group, or team, per brand.

It is part of P&G’s ongoing effort to simplify operations as it grows larger and more global. Instead of its different brand people meeting with a slew of agency representatives from all the different media, just two will manage creative discussions. One is the franchise leader, a P&G person in charge of brand equity. The other is the brand agency leader (BAL), an agency employee appointed by P&G. The brand leader captains a team of people from the various firms and, in conjunction with P&G, they develop a brand message that can be implemented across the various media. That message is then recommended to the franchise leader, who decides whether to pull the trigger on the idea.

Less Duplication

The goal is to first develop the big marketing idea and then execute it across various media, said Schoff. Traditionally, one firm would come up with an idea—for television, say—and then it might be applied to other media through other firms.

“Instead of having to renegotiate several contracts, we just negotiate with the BAL,” she said. “There’s less duplication. At one time, we might have had the same types of agencies doing research on the same markets and not sharing it. Now they can share it.”

Likewise, P&G negotiates with the BAL each team’s (or brand’s) compensation package, 10 percent of which is based on project performance. This is designed to incentivize all members toward one goal and to eliminate any conflict that might arise from mingling the agency talent, though some argue that’s no easy feat.

P&G has implemented the program across 21 brands, including Gillette, Swiffer, and Pringles, which make up 40 percent of its sales. The results have been encouraging: Turnaround time has been faster, there are fewer reworks, and P&G expects cost reductions. With such results, P&G now expects to roll out the program to cover 70 percent of brand sales—north of $55 billion—by the end of the fiscal year on June 30.