Packaged Goods

Old Spice Guy Doubles Sales, Gets Movie Deal
Toronto Star | July 29, 2010
Old Spice body wash sales zoomed 107 per cent in the last month, spiking after the most popular ad campaign ever, according to data from The Nielsen Company.
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Did Old Spice Guy Move the Sales Needle?
Marketing | July 26, 2010
Since Mustafa lent his sotto voce humour to the production wizardry of the first Wieden & Kennedy ad in February, the Procter & Gamble brand has been consistently gaining market share, even though that's only been enough to erase a deficit for the brand built up earlier.
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Givenchy Finds Glamour at the Oscars
Thinkbox | July 15, 2010
Research conducted a week after the Oscars among the target audience found spontaneous awareness of Givenchy Advertising was three times higher among Oscar watchers, and sales went up 30% during and immediately after the sponsorship period.
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Dawn Ultra's Oil Spill Cleanup Spot Crowned Most Effective Ad
Adweek | July 06, 2010
"Dawn soap achieves a quiet heroic status by gently cleaning oil-soaked animals. The ad demonstrates the positive reaction consumers have to cause-related marketing when it is skillfully executed and interwoven with a product's intrinsic features."
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See Ace Metrix's Quartlery Top Ten...

 
Old Spice, Philips Use TV to Reinvent Brands
WARC | June 29, 2010
Old Spice's recent tongue-in-cheek TV campaign "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" was described by Cannes jury president Mark Tutssel as a "perfect" example of what could be achieved using this medium, having successfully "reignited a sleeping giant."

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"World's Best" Cat Litter Extends Campaign
MediaPost Marketing Daily | June 18, 2010
"We aim to reach cat owners using a combination of media including direct response TV, online banner ads, and magazine and newspaper advertising...We were thrilled to see the TV viewers' responsiveness and, due to its success, decided to expand this rebate offer via other media through September."
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Dove's Super Bowl Play Builds Buzz Among Men
Adweek | February 09, 2010
Prior to CBS’ broadcast of the Super Bowl, three of the most popular terms associated with Dove were “soap,” “beauty” and “deodorant.” But in the 24 hours following the game, the Dove spot started generating terms like “Super Bowl,” “ad” and “men."
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Avon Reports Sales Gain On Ad Spend Hike
MediaPost Marketing Daily | February 04, 2010
Avon Products says its fourth-quarter revenues jumped 13% to $3.2 billion, while earnings climbed 15% - in part due to increased ad spending for the quarter.
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P&G Benefits From Hike in Marketing Spending
WARC | January 29, 2010
"Our Q2 organic sales growth was due to the underlying marketing growth of about 3% … the organic volume growth was strong in every region and that's what drove organic sales to the high end of our guidance range."
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Procter & Gamble and the Beauty of Small Wins
Bloomberg.com | October 15, 2009
Innovation doesn't always involve new features, functions, services, or business models.  Sometimes it can be as seemingly simple as a new marketing message.
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Pepto Beats Private-Label Despite 60% Price Premium
Advertising Age | September 21, 2009
What's behind that success seems to mystify even Pepto Brand Manager Nathan Fox somewhat, but he largely credits an ad campaign from Publicis Worldwide, New York, that took flight into the worst headwinds of the recession last fall.
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Polman Powers Unilever Surge
WARC | August 24, 2009
Unilever is outperforming consumer goods rivals Nestle and Procter & Gamble as CEO Paul Polman, a former senior executive at both companies, increases innovation and marketing to drive sales.
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P&G to Refocus on Market Share Following Sales Decline
Advertising Age | August 05, 2009
Last quarter's losses blamed on decreased marketing spending, but the marketing giant signalled a renewed focus on market share in the year ahead, setting up what could be a bruising battle with competitors.
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Reckitt Benckiser Bucks the Downturn
WARC | July 30, 2009
Reckitt Benckiser, the household goods giant, posted a double-digit improvement in its revenue and profit levels over the first half of this year, and also boosted its marketing expenditure during this period.
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A conversation with Rob de Groot, Executive VP of North America and Australia...

Unilever, Walmart, P&G Buck the Short-Term Trend
Advertising Age | June 29, 2009
It's been said over and over: There's no time like recession, when competitors are retreating, to ramp up innovation and marketing to grab share.
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Debating the Merits of a Clean Shave Boosts Gillette in India
Advertising Age | June 04, 2009
Gillette launched the "India votes: To shave or not" campaign, which ended up sparking a national debate on the merits of the clean-shaven look vs. the stubbled look and eventually generated record results for the brand.
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Dove Finds Perfect Match in China's "Ugly Betty"
Advertising Age | May 28, 2009
The brand's overall investment for one season, with an average of more than 23 million viewers a night and millions of searches and blog entries, cost less than two weeks of traditional airtime in Shanghai. 
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wRatings Corp. Reveals Colgate-Palmolive as Top Consumer Goods Co.
Drug Store News | May 27, 2009
The wRatings Corp. revealed the results of the 2009 "Most Competitive Retail & Consumer Goods" study, finding that the recession has had a significant impact on consumer shopping behavior; 55% of the consumer-packaged goods companies among the top 20 rankings traded spots, with Colgate-Palmolive laying claim to the top spot.
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P&G: Doing Good is Good Business
Cincinnati Enquirer | April 24, 2009
Procter & Gamble has long had an active corporate giving program, but a refocusing of its charitable efforts now means that doing good has become good for business.
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PHD and Dove Win Big at the Festival of Media Awards
Marketing | April 21, 2009
PHD Canada added to its win total at the Festival of Media Awards Monday in Valencia, Spain, as its much-lauded "Dove Sleepover for Self Esteem" won in the Best Targeted Campaign category.
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Unilever's Di Como On 'TV & Everything Video'
MediaPost Marketing Daily | February 12, 2009
"At the end of the day, regardless of the media, what consumers care about is story," said Unilever's VP of American media Luis Di Como, showing a campaign in Argentina for Ala laundry whitener launched in the depths of that country's long economic and political crisis in 2002, when the country at one point had five presidents in fewer than two weeks.  "The story was to ask consumers all over the country to give a piece of white or blue fabric to make the biggest Argentine flag ever to build national pride," he said.  "We created a TV program to track all of this, on TV, on every medium. The brand was at the center of campaign...If our brand is at the heart of the story, our brands have higher bonding, equity and loyalty."
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Giving Voice: P&G Bullish On Ad Spending
MediaPost Daily News | February 2, 2009
In a call with investors, CEO A.G. Lafley said the marketer of Tide and Crest is "absolutely not" trimming ad dollars. In fact, what's really going on is that "the advertising markets are softening--and for the same dollars, we're buying more delivery." That, in turn, has led to "improving our shares of voice" in multiple categories, he said.
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Ad Spending, Price Hikes Help Fuel Sales Gains for Reckitt Benckiser
Ad Age Daily | October 28, 2008
Reckitt Benckiser continued to use steep increases in ad spending to defy a worsening global economy and slowing category growth in the U.S. and Western Europe last quarter - it turned in a 10% increase in organic-sales growth.  Globally, sales rose 24% for Reckitt last quarter.
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P&G Says It Won't Cut Ad Budget, Despite Rising Costs
AdAge.com | August 5, 2008
Procter & Gamble Co. will have to keep tightening its belt to deal with rising commodity costs, but the media budget won't be cut...P&G maintained ad spending as a percent of sales for its fiscal year ended June 30 and plans to do so again this year.
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Avon Beauty Sales Climb 19% On Increased Ad Spending
MediaPost's Marketing Daily | July 31, 2008
Citing an increase in its ad spending, Avon reported higher sales and earnings for the second quarter, with beauty products doing especially well.  Total revenue gained 17% to $2.7 billion, while sales of its beauty products jumped 19%.
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Duracell Spot Leads To Sales Spurt For Featured Product
MediaPost's Marketing Daily | July 24, 2008
BrickHouse Security expects to have its Child Locator back in stock today. The innovative tracking device had sold out - four months worth of inventory - less than 48 hours after its first appearance two weeks ago in a Duracell "Trusted Everywhere" commercial.  Todd Morris, president of the five-year-old BrickHouse Security, says he had prepared for sales to double due to the Duracell commercial, but "the reaction has been much more than we expected."
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Going to Beautiful Lengths
Strategy | May 2008
Knowing how devastating hair loss can be for women undergoing chemotherapy, Procter & Gamble Canada partnered with the Canadian Cancer Society to support these women during the fight of their lives...An internal launch at P&G that saw 16 employees make the cut amid tears and cheers was covered by media including the Toronto Sun, CBC News and CityTV.
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Reckitt Says Heavy Ad Spending 'Paid Off in Spades'
AdAge Daily | April 25, 2008
Despite a seemingly steep slowdown in the U.S. that cut deeply into top-line growth of fellow European package-goods player L'Oreal last quarter, Reckitt Benckiser reported global first-quarter organic sales growth of 11% to $3 billion, with like-for-like sales of its North America and Australia region up 10%.  Reckitt CEO Bart Becht credited heavy marketing spending.
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Marketers' Potty Mouths Pay Off
AdAge Daily | April 21, 2008
After years of emphasizing softness, companies such as P&G bring the rear out front in bath-tissue ads - and sales are up 10%.
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Back To Basics Works
National Post | March 28, 2008
"I can't stand your commercial, but your product is amazing!" a man crows at the end of a commercial for Head On, an analgesic product known more widely for its in-your-face TV ads than for its possible therapeutic benefits.  The tagline could serve well as an anthem for the marketing minds at Buchanan Group Inc., the production company behind the pervasive, indelible Brand Power and Zoot Review ads.
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Vaseline, Dove And Kellogg Named Global Effie Winners
MediaPost's Marketing Daily | March 3, 2008
Unilever's "Keeping Skin Amazing" campaign for its Vaseline won the gold Global Effie Award at the inaugural World Effie Festival in Singapore on Friday.  The company's "Pro-Age" Dove campaign landed the silver, and Kellogg's Special K's "Drop a Jean Size Challenge" took the bronze.
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Avon's Sales Gain 20% On Increased Advertising
MediaPost's Marketing Daily | Feb 06, 2008
Avon Products says its increased advertising investment is paying off, with sales of its beauty products jumping 20% in the fourth quarter.
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