• by Larissa Faw , July 27, 2020

GSK is forming a global partnership with Publicis Production and Tag to create an end-to-end globally scalable production capability.

This move consolidates production that was formerly handled by individual agencies under one centrally governed service layer that integrates production and media. A key focus of this new model is to better leverage data to optimize content effectiveness.

“They want to use the billions of audience data points we hold to produce better assets to grow their brands and business,” explains Steve King, Chief Operating Officer, Publicis Groupe. “And they want to do this at speed. Between Tag and Publicis Production, we have every type of specialism that they need to do exactly that. We are really proud to be jointly building this with them.”

GSK was responsible for pairing these two companies under one team, believing both would become a stronger partnership. The original RFP provided interested agencies with the option of pitching for the complete business or pitching for a portion of the assignment.

After reviewing submissions in response to the RFP GSK asked Publicis Production and Tag to come together. “We really benefited from a dialogue about our content challenges and vision,” says Meredith Herman, VP and Head of GSK’s Marketing EDGE. “They understood our desire to connect media, content, data, analytics and technology, and to deliver for our consumers across our business.”

In addition, GSK will invest in building on-site studios in certain markets to provide these operations with additional agility for faster content creation and responsive marketing.

These regional hubs, which will be primarily responsible for adapting global content, will be located in each GSK region, with the global center based in India.

GSK Consumer Healthcare will launch the U.S. studios and the India-based global center later this year, followed by a phased rollout that brings the combined production and media capabilities to all global markets.