The winning agency will become the sole agency on the Omo account, which includes the brands Persil, Skip and Ala. According to the Financial Times, the review will kick off next month and is due to be completed in autumn.
Lowe and JWT are the incumbents on the work and are to be invited to participate in the review, but other agencies could also be in the running.
David Arkwright, global brand director for Omo, said: "This does not signal dissatisfaction nor criticism of the agencies involved, but is rather a reflection of Unilever streamlining its brand structure in laundry.
"It is an agency review in the true sense, a chance for us to look at the whole ethos and culture around how we look."
Unilever has been suffering of late and the margins on brands such as Persil are being pressed. Last year, it issued a profits warning and, earlier this month, it revealed disappointing full-year results for 2004, with group profits down 37% to 拢2.8bn from 拢4.5bn in 2003 and turnover down 6% to 拢40.4bn.
In an attempt to fix its problems, Unilever named a sole chief executive from the UK side of the business in Patrick Cescau. His former co-CEO Antony Burgmans became chairman, although speculation is that the Dutchman, who opposed the single CEO move, will be out before the end of the year.
Until now, the two men have held the posts of joint chairman and chief executive.
It will be a test of Lowe's new "lighthouse" structure, unveiled last week, as well as the abilities of newly appointed London chief executive Garry Lace to turn around the agency's dismal new business performance.
Lowe was once a firm fixture on Unilever's UK roster but has seen work disappear, losing the pan-European Surf business and Flora to Bartle Bogle Hegarty. However, the network has picked up extra assignments in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Earlier this year, JWT's Carol Potter was appointed to the position of global business director on its 拢55m Unilever brief. JWT's relationship with Unilever goes back 102 years, servicing household brands such as Sunsilk, Lipton and Persil.
Over at Lowe, Argentine Fernando Vega Olmos was named worldwide creative director for Unilever last August, taking over from Adrian Holmes, who left the agency last week.
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