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WPP finds a new arena for its bespoke teams – now it launches Team Unilever Shopper in the US

Those WPP teams are everywhere and now there’s a new kid on the block – Team Unilever Shopper – in the US.

supermarket-shopper_795247cUnilever has signed a deal with the WPP to create an “aggregated customised approach to shopper marketing in the US”, although quite what this entails is unclear (social media will doubtless figure somewhere). Team Unilever Shopper will include bits from WPP companies Barrows, Bravo, Geometry Global, Kantar Retail, Lunchbox, Mindshare, Rockfish, Shopper2Buyer and TNS Global.

Unilever shopper supremo Kathy O’Brien says: “With the shoppers’ path-to-purchase now involving so many touch-points, we believe our new partnership with Team Unilever Shopper will allow us to integrate our efforts across in-store visibility, shopper insights, multicultural marketing, retail activation, e-commerce and shopper media. This will drive greater effectiveness through focused delivery. We will use shopper insights to optimize our content regardless of where it resides and what form it takes, so shoppers can engage with, talk about and buy our brands consistently in the most convenient ways possible.”

WPP global client leader (blimey) Carl Hartman says: “More and more clients are realizing that shopper marketing is so important it requires a collection of different agency resources working together, rather than a single agency. WPP is unique in our collection of assets across insights, category management, in-store media, digital shopper and e-commerce, multicultural shopper and more. Our real strength is being able to customize an offering for a particular client – which we’ve now done with Unilever.”

Shopper marketing is, belatedly perhaps, becoming recognised as a Big Thing. Recognising the importance of reaching consumers when they’re filling their baskets is hardly rocket science, although Team Unilever Shopper will no doubt try to make some aspects of what they do seem like it.

But it looks like another smart move from Sir Martin Sorrell’s WPP; all part of his grand plan to make the company indispensable for the world’s biggest marketers.

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