CIA Medianetwork wins 15m Revlon Euro brief
CIA Medianetwork has won the 15m Revlon Consumer Products account across Europe.
In the UK the account is worth 7.5m and has been handled by Media Business Group since 1994, when the company dropped Young & Rubicam.
The win ends four weeks of losses at CIA Medianetwork. The company lost 3m Clerical Medical account to Zenith Media last week. The week before, the 3m Fuji film account went to Manning Gottlieb Media (MW March 28).
Revlon’s cosmetics brands include Flex shampoo, Charlie perfume, ColourStay lipstick and Almay. Two years ago, Revlon combined its Revlon North America and Revlon International business into Revlon Consumer Products Worldwide. The appointment of CIA is understood to be part of a centralisation of its European media buying operations.
Revlon is second to Procter & Gamble in the mass cosmetics sector, with a 25 per cent share of the worldwide market. Cosmetics has become highly competitive in recent years after P&G bought Max Factor in 1992, L’Oréal bought Maybelline, and Unilever acquired shampoo maker Helene Curtis last year.
Retailers have also been aggressive. Boots has relaunched its cosmetics products and new own-label providers have emerged, such as Top Shop (MW September 27 1996) and Virgin (MW August 9 1996).
Revlon was taken over by New York millionaire Ron Perelman in 1986, with the help of Junk-bond investor Michael Milken.