GLOBAL, SEPTEMBER 10, 2012 – WPP adds one more global giant brand under its care: Colgate-Palmolive. The company’s agency partners under WPP are teaming up to create one dedicated operating unit to service Colgate-Palmolive.
The unit, which will merge account teams at Y&R, Wunderman, VML, MEC and GHG will be called Red Fuse Communications. The move comes after a nearly three-decade long relationship in the case of creative network Y&R and media agency MEC, and a 15-year relationship in the case of digital shop VML.
Steve Forcione, who has been charged with overseeing the Colgate account and whose title is WPP Global Managing Partner, has been named CEO of Red Fuse. "WPP is merging resources from across its premiere networks into one fully dedicated and exclusive team to help Colgate win on the ground," Mr. Forcione said in a statement, adding that staff aren’t unenthusiastic about the idea.
"The many excellent people who work on the account around the world are eager to move to the Red Fuse structure, so they can develop big, innovative campaigns in real time," he added.
Nigel Burton, Colgate’s CMO said: "It goes without saying that we already have a close-knit partnership with our agencies. But we are excited about Red Fuse because we believe that co-locating all the partners will lead to bigger ideas and better work created and executed smarter and faster."
To start, Red Fuse will merge the existing Colgate account teams in six cities at agencies working on its accounts. Those cities are Hong Kong, Mumbai, Prague, Kansas City, New York and Paris. Next year will be dedicated to rolling out the model to more global locations.
