GSK moves global Panadol ad business into bespoke WPP team

Grey previously held the global ad account and will continue to work on creative for Panadol within the bespoke WPP team based in Singapore.

The bespoke team is led by Konstantin Popovic as chief executive. He's the chief executive of Grey Group Singapore and has been the GSK lead for Grey in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and Africa since 2015. 

Popovic’s team comprises staff from Geometry, Grey, Hill & Knowlton Strategies, Ogilvy Commonhealth and Wunderman.

Konstantin Popovic

These agencies, with the exception of Hill & Knowlton, have been roster shops since 2016 on GSK’s Consumer Healthcare business, which includes seven "power brands", of which Panadol is one. The others are Sensodyne, Parodontax, Poligrip, Voltaren, Theraflu and Otrivin. 

WPP said servicing Panadol with a bespoke model would enable GSK to streamline its agency roster and maximise efficiencies in its agency model. 

Michael Duffy, global business lead for Panadol, GSK Consumer Healthcare, said: "Through the pitch process, we were looking for an agency offering with real end-to-end capabilities and strong creative excellence to help us take Panadol to the next level, and WPP really stepped up to the brief.

"We were particularly impressed by the potential of the one holding company model to cut out complexity, drive efficiency and deliver the best for the brand."

The appointment follows last week’s decision by GSK to award its global media business to Publicis Media, meaning losses for WPP’s MediaCom in Europe and Omnicom’s PHD in the US.