After 50 Years, DraftFCB's Relationship With SC Johnson to End

After a protracted review, DraftFCB has lost the entire marketing account for SC Johnson, according to people familiar with the matter. Much of the business had been housed at Interpublic Group of Cos.' DraftFCB, Chicago, and other Interpublic agencies, so the loss delivers a serious blow to the agency. U.S. spending is estimated at more than $400 million; globally it exceeds $1 billion.

People familiar with the matter confirmed the account handled by DraftFCB will indeed be split between WPP's Ogilvy & Mather and Omnicom Group's BBDO. EnergyBBDO has won marketing and digital duties for pest control and home storage products. Ogilvy will handle fragrance and home cleaning.

A release issued by Ogilvy & Mather Friday morning said WPP's Group M, via Maxus , has been appointed to handle global media buying for all categories. Ogilvy also confirmed that Maxus will handle media planning globally on brands assigned to Ogilvy. No official word has come from SC Johnson or BBDO regarding media, though Omnicom Media Group may work on media through EnergyBBDO, most likely on planning duties for brands assigned to EnergyBBDO. OgilvyAction will handle global activation for all categories. Omnicom's Proximity, which was involved in the review, will not be handling any of the marketing duties assigned to BBDO.

It is also understood that Interpublic's Mullen, Boston, which was brought in two years ago on the Shout brand in a rare instance of SCJ working with shops outside of DraftFCB, will not retain the account.

It was not known at press time whether R/GA , part of the DraftFCB network, would retain any business. [ UPDATE: People familiar with the matter say that EnergyBBDO has won digital across all categories, a development that likely results in the loss of digital work for DraftFCB R/GA.] Overseeing the review was consultant R3:JLB, formerly known as Jones Lundin Beals.

Agencies that had made it to the final round of the review were Ogilvy, with the help of media-agency sibling Maxus, which is part of Group M; EnergyBBDO, Chicago, which pulled in Omnicom Media Group (a unit that houses media agencies PHD and OMD ), promotion agency TracyLocke and digital shop Proximity; and incumbent DraftFCB, believed to have been presenting with media agency Initiative, also an Interpublic shop, and R/GA.

The SCJ review, made public in December, covered the global account, including creative handled by DraftFCB, plus media duties handled by sibling agency Initiative; digital duties handled by R/GA; the Shout brand business at Mullen ; and non-U.S. media duties at Universal McCann .