Gillette starts pitch for £10m below-the-line

Gillette is lining up agencies to pitch for its £10m pan-European below-the-line business.

The company is talking to direct marketing, sales promotion and point of sale agencies for all Gillette’s brands.

The brands are Braun, Duracell, Oral B, Waterman, Parker, Papermate, and Gillette.

The company is understood to be putting together a roster, to replace the myriad of agencies it has used until now.

The company has been in talks with several agencies including Ogilvy One, Tequila Payne Stracey and the Marketing Store.

The move follows Gillette’s decision in the summer to restructure its marketing and sales teams, combining all its brands into one central marketing operation headed by Jackie Harrison.

The restructure was widely acknowledged to be a result of the company over-stretching itself with last year’s launch of the Mach 3 razor, when it spent more than £122m on global advertising.

No one at Gillette was available to comment on the pitch. However, some insiders have suggested that Gillette will look at reducing its roster of above-the-line agencies which comprise Lowe Howard-Spink, Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO and Saatchi & Saatchi.