P&G hunts agency to take on European pet-food job

FMCG giant Procter & Gamble (P&G) is on the hunt for a PR agency to boost the profile of its pet-food brands across Europe.

P&G spokesman Robin Sharpe said an agency would be hired for a newly created contract, reporting to the firm’s ‘global business unit’ in Geneva, with the aim of better co-ordinating and boosting the promotion of its Iams and Eukanuba brands throughout the continent.

An undisclosed Geneva-based central European manager, who has yet to begin work, has been appointed to oversee consumer PR, which Sharpe would only say had the aim of ‘developing a PR strategy for the brand in Europe’.

P&G retains Good Relations to handle PR for its pet-food brands in the UK. Sharpe said there was no intention to review that agency’s contract.

P&G uses various other agencies to promote its pet foods across Europe, and Sharpe said one aim of the agency hire was to boost the brands’ profile in ‘smaller European countries’, in addition to better co-ordinating the brands’ PR activities from country to country.

Sharpe said rostered P&G agencies, which he declined to name, were in the running for the remit, with the plan being to seal a deal before the end of the year.

Iams and Eukanuba brands, comprised of a wide range of dog and cat foods, were acquired by P&G in September 1999, when it bought US pet-food firm The Iams Company for £1.4bn.

The Iams Company was originally founded by Paul Iams in Dayton, Ohio, in 1946.