Revlon consolidates global ad business

Cosmetics company Revlon has merged its global ad business with WPP, appointing Grey as its creative agency and retaining MediaCom for its media planning and buying duties worldwide.Grey will offer integrated communications services including traditional and digital advertising, as well as promotion and activation marketing to Revlon's portfolio of brands such as Elizabeth Arden, Elizabeth Taylor, Revlon and Cutex. Grey New York, the agency's flagship office, will serve as the global hub.In a statement to Marketing, a spokesperson for WPP said there was no formal review and that the account was previously split with Publicis. Grey will also handle all Revlon brands throughout Asia Pacific. The spokesperson added that Revlon wanted to streamline its roster of agencies and WPP was chosen for its "superior" depth of resources across disciplines worldwide, "strong" historical performance of MediaCom and "unparalleled" beauty experience at Grey."Grey has a long track record and deep expertise in the beauty industry. The consolidation and streamlining of our creative and media agency partnerships enables us to achieve greater efficiencies, speed to market and better support the strategic communications goals and long-term growth strategies for our brands globally," Revlon's president and CEO, Fabian Garcia, said.“Calling Grey one of the foremost beauty agencies in the world, our new client said we demonstrated superb creativity, strategic thinking, integrated capabilities and a deep understanding of the beauty sector," Jim Heekin, chairman and CEO Grey Group Global, said.In 2016, Revlon garnered US$2.3 billion in net sales, with the majority coming from colour cosmetics (43%), followed by hair care (23%), fragrance (17%), beauty (13%) and skin care (4%). More than half of its sales came from North America (58%), while 42% came from international markets.Revlon's consumer products raked in US$1,389.8 million, a drop from the US$1,414.8 million it brought in last year, while Revlon professional's earnings increased from US$471.1 million in 2015 to US$476.5 last year. Its beauty brand, Elizabeth Arden, accumulated US$441.4 million in net sales after being acquired by Revlon in 2016.