WPP gunning for more P&G business with Team Procter

LONDON – WPP Group is looking to win more Procter & Gamble business and extend the advertising firm's relationship with the consumer goods giant beyond the recently acquired Grey Global Group.

According to a Reuters report, WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell wants to ensure that P&G becomes a WPP client rather than just a client of Grey, which WPP snapped up last year.

P&G is one of the bedrock international clients for Grey, alongside Mars and GlaxoSmithKline. Of all of those, it is P&G that is the most important because it is Grey's largest client, accounting for almost 11% of Grey Worldwide's $1.3bn (£712.2m) in revenues.

The Grey relationship with P&G goes back 50 years, but Sorrell knows that he can not rely on long-standing ties alone.

WPP has established Team Procter to focus on P&G and drafted in 12 high-profile executives across its network whose mission it is to bring in more P&G business.

Last week, saw Tamara Ingram appointed to oversee Team Procter as part of her appointment as UK group CEO at Grey.

Her appointment was largely seen as being related to P&G, a client she had worked closely with at Saatchi & Saatchi.

In her role overseeing Team Procter, Ingram will, working with other WPP directors, attempt to win P&G business for other parts of the WPP network.

Red Cell, WPP's fourth string advertising network, is already said to have met with P&G global marketing chief Jim Stengel, and Red Cell CEO Andy Berlin is a member of Team Procter.

A spokeswoman for P&G, Tami Jones, told Reuters: "Grey is the primary advertising component of WPP for P&G. Now there's a team to look across the portfolio of agency brands."

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