• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, July 25, 2012

Consumer health care and pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson is conducting a global creative agency consolidation review, the company has confirmed. A J&J spokeswoman said the goal was to "build greater value and deliver innovative and fully integrated solutions for our consumer brands," via email.

J&J spent $2.6 billion on advertising last year, according to company financials.

The spokeswoman indicated that the company would have “nothing further to add” about the review during the process.

The company works with numerous agencies around the world, including shops from the four major holding companies, such as WPP’s JWT, Omnicom’s DDB, Publicis Groupe’s Razorfish and Interpublic Group’s R/GA.

Word of the creative review follows an ongoing media agency review the client called earlier this year for the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions, where the company spends a reported $300 million on ads annually. Aegis Group's Carat is the incumbent in that pitch and is defending.

While J&J’s overall ad budget has been on the rise in recent years, spending in the U.S. has fallen. According to Kantar Media, the company fell out of the top 10 U.S. advertisers in 2011 -- spending $995 million, down 14% from 2010.

In 2010, its spending dropped 7.5% to a little over $1.15 billion in the U.S., making it the eighth-largest advertiser here, per Kantar.

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