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"If you're a long-in-the-tooth marketer like myself, you need some help and, of course, we look to our agencies," says Simon Clift, who, as chief marketing officer at Unilever - the world's biggest advertiser with 400 brands and a global budget of more than £200 million - is one man for whom most digital agencies would bend over backwards.

But, following a major overhaul of its global and UK digital agency roster this summer, only four - Tribal DDB, Ogilvy One, Momentum/MRM and dare - are in line for the task. Clift says the FMCG giant's digital marketing strategy has been inconsistent, but he's hoping to change that and believes the new slimmed-down roster will be crucial.

Clift is an old-school marketer and a Unilever stalwart. He has dedicated his 22 years, which includes stints in the UK, Austria and Latin America, to marketing the company's vast stable of brands, including Sure, Pot Noodle and Dove. Not entirely comfortable with talking about digital marketing, he is armed with notes from his team on several recent campaigns. "Some of it is pretty market-leading.

Sometimes we are surprised ourselves by how innovative we are," he says.

Clift has a reputation for being one of the more adventurous and unconventional traditional marketers. But, digital is only just starting to dominate his radar and he isn't on top of digital media trends, such as podcasting and user-generated content. However, as he explains, he is taking steps to make sure that others, especially his army of brand managers, are.

This is where he thinks his new line-up of digital agencies can help.

"The many opportunities available to Unilever in new media and the rapidly changing media habits of our consumers demand a strategic approach to digital media and content," he explains. "We believe a close, collaborative relationship between our categories and aligned digital agencies will result in more world-class campaigns for our brands in new media."

A major complaint from Unilever's previous agencies is that it has been difficult to build close relationships with brand managers because the agency roster was so big. "There is no opportunity to build relationships and trust, and if you don't have that trust, you won't get brave work," says one. "They need a clear, company-wide strategy on what they expect from their digital agencies."

Greater expertise

The new roster is much leaner and hopefully clearer for those agencies lucky enough to get on it (see box, p33). Previously, the company had a UK roster of more than 20 specialist digital and direct suppliers. "That is not an optimal solution, so we are looking to streamline and rationalise," says Clift. "Clearly, the intention is to have greater expertise and accountability."

Following the UK digital agency review, which took place in parallel with the global review over the summer, Unilever will now work with a much smaller number of digital partners. The four global agencies will be preferred suppliers for the creation and deployment of digital campaigns on a strategic and global level. The UK market, meanwhile, will use these global agencies as their key partners, but will have two additional ones to cater for local brands: AKQA, which works on the Peperami brand, and Agency Republic, which works on Knorr and Hellman's.

Unilever has also made internal changes, including the appointment of a small team of digital-marketing specialists, led by digital director Caroline Slootweg, to advise the category and brand teams on digital.

Clift believes the new approach will enable Unilever to "quickly and effectively improve its presence, and the quality and consistency of its new media content".

Its digital marketing activity has certainly been a mixed bag. While the likes of Axe (Lynx), Dove, Peperami and Pot Noodle have been busy producing award-winning digital work, other brands have barely dipped their toes in the water.

"It is a fair cop that some brands are simply being more creative and adventurous than others," explains Clift. "I think that's a job for my central media team and that's why we've put it in place to chivvy on the later adopters. And, we're now taking this much more seriously with the appointment of digital media specialists to help and encourage people, spread best practice, and move the vanguard further forward faster."

But, Clift knows that it's tough to encourage change in any business, especially one the size of Unilever. The company still spends the vast majority of its ad budget - around 65-70 per cent - on TV, though this is significantly lower than three years ago, when as much as 85 per cent went on TV.

Clift explains: "It's no secret that the vast majority of our advertising goes on TV. That has always been the case, and for a long time it will be so, because so much of our business, compared with our competitors, is in the developing world," where he believes TV is still the most valuable medium.

"We are spending less on TV than we used to and that's, of course, because new media is making a more compelling argument for our attention."

He believes one problem in getting people to spend more on digital is that many of the best marketers and agencies have made their name by being able to translate ideas into a 30-second TV commercial. But, he thinks the shift from TV to digital media is happening in parallel with a larger shift in the way in which FMCG brands are communicated.

"It is really important that brands stand for something in consumers' lives and have a kind of point of view," says Clift. "If you think about the role of Axe (Lynx) and Dove in their respective consumers' lives, it is much deeper than 50 years ago."

Opening up debate

Dove's ongoing '±±¾©Èü³µpk10 for Real Beauty', for example, has opened up the beauty debate and aims to convey the message that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. "It's a very powerful idea that has captured the imagination of women all over the world," he adds.

"I think the point is that the primacy of the brand idea is now at the centre. In the old days we used to think, 'okay, this is the innovation, so we'll, of course, need a 30-second TV ad and what else can we add around it?'. Now, all of our brands are conceived as brand ideas, so 'dirt is good', to take the Persil example. You can then begin to see how you might interact with groups of like-minded people or how your brand idea can somehow be communicated online."

As well as looking to digital agencies for help, Clift believes the "crusty, old, long-in-the-tooth marketers" can learn a lot from younger members within the marketing and brand teams at Unilever. "I think you learn from your kids, certainly in marketing. One of the nice things about Unilever is that it is relatively unhierarchical, despite its reputation, and in developing traditional ads for Axe we've relied hugely on the younger members of the team, because, in the world of cool, if you're 99 per cent right you're 100 per cent wrong," he says. "And there's also a very important role for young people in the team for whom (digital) is completely natural. In some more formal hierarchical companies, I think we wouldn't be able to release the innate energy and creativity of the younger people in such a way."

Yet, another criticism made by several digital agencies that have worked with Unilever brands is that the people in the senior marketing roles - those in charge of the budgets - tend to be more comfortable with traditional mediums such as TV. Meanwhile, those responsible for digital media tend to be more junior people, who do not necessarily have the power or budget to lead the way.

Clift thinks this is a fair criticism, but highlights the example of the Evan and Gareth video blog, which was the key element of the campaign to launch a new Axe fragrance. He says ideas like this from younger, more dynamic members of the team are increasingly breaking through. "In the old days, the local company chairman could stand in the way of stuff like the Evan and Gareth blog and I can guarantee that, in 100 out of 150 countries, local brand managers would have said, 'I don't understand it; can't we just have a good old-fashioned TV ad that shows product benefits in a more obvious way?'

"The point is, we've moved away from that structure now. So, if one of the digital communication specialists says 'this is the way to go' to the people at the level below me who take advertising decisions, at least you're having the debate at a higher level. It's not going to be snuffed out by 100 different local chairmen" he says.

Until a few years ago, Unilever had a country-chairman-is-king mentality and marketing was decided at local level. Not only did this lead to inconsistencies in campaigns for global brands, but it also made it harder to push them to try new channels. But, Clift says Unilever now has a much more central approach to brand management. All brand managers now report to about 14 senior VPs of brands and categories, so, for example, all brand ads for Dove report to one person, who reports to him.

However, he points out that Dove and Axe have always been more coherently and centrally managed than other brands. "It's not a coincidence that our digital strategy (for these brands) has been more creative than some other locally managed brands. And, given the change in Unilever overall, I would expect the laggards will catch up fast. We're probably still not as centrally directive as some of our competitors. I know my equivalent in another well-known company has said 'we want x per cent of money to be spent on digital media by this year'. We haven't done that, but we have set a target for people to significantly increase their spend on digital media."

So, unlike FMCG rival P&G, Clift won't be drawn on how quickly ad spend will shift to digital. He says: "It's happening pretty fast anyway, and the percentage we spend on TV in some leading markets is already radically different than it was even a few years ago. If I'd been asked to predict how quickly that would have happened three or four years ago, I'd have been wrong."

SIMON CLIFT'S CV
2005: Chief marketing officer and group VP personal care, Unilever
2001: President of marketing, Unilever home and personal care
2000: Chairman of Latin American personal care category group
1997: Managing director, Unilever Personal Care Company, Brazil
1994: Brand development director of Elida Faberge UK & head of the
European Deodorant Innovation Centre
1991: Marketing director, Unilever Persona Care Company, Mexico
1982: Management trainee in marketing for Unilever's Elida Gibbs UK

UNILEVER OVERHAULS DIGITAL AGENCY STRUCTURE

Unilever previously had a roster of more than 20 digital and direct creative agencies in the UK.

The company embarked on a UK agency review to consolidate this roster earlier in the year, conducted by Rachel Bristow, UK head of direct communications and new media.

This review was conducted in parallel with a separate global digital agency review, led by Caroline Slootweg, Unilever's digital director, with input from global media director Alan Rutherford and Simon Clift.

The global review resulted in the appointment of four digital agencies: Tribal DDB, Ogilvy One, Momentum/MRM and Dare through its partnership with BBH.

The four agencies will be the preferred suppliers for the creation and deployment of future global digital campaigns.

They also form the core of the new UK digital roster, which also includes two other agencies, Agency Republic and AKQA, to cater for local brands.

Simon Clift says the ration-ale behind the appointments was to enable Unilever to create "a common and consistent approach to digital media" and allow it to "service the best talent at the most efficient cost".

Clift adds that the agencies on the roster have not been aligned to any particular product category or brand to enable the category teams to be able to "choose from among the wide range of talent and expertise available in these agencies depending on the nature of the project brief."

AXE REAPS REWARDS FOR VIRAL

Unilever's Axe brand (Lynx in the UK) is widely credited with being one of the most innovative FMCG brands in the digital field.

Its work in the UK over the past several years with ad agency BBH and digital specialist dare has been shortlisted for, and picked up, a number of awards.

But, it was a viral campaign created by The Viral Factory to build on the successful Axe ad campaign 'Spray More, Get More' last year, that claimed a Cyber Lions award for the brand.

It features a news reporter who goes to Ravenstoke, Alaska to film an unusual phenomenon. The people of Ravenstoke have resorted to the drastic measure of spraying their whole town with Axe in a bid to attract more women to come to their town.

The Ravenstoke campaign, launched in August 2005, has been viewed about 32 million times. As well as the Cyber Lions Bronze in the viral video category, it has picked up a host of other awards, including EPICA 2005 Gold for online film and BTAA 2006 Silver in the toiletries (viral) category.