• Ad Age, Monday, November 19, 2007 12 PM

Procter & Gamble is testing a system that sounds an awful lot like the old full-service agency model the marketer--and most agency holding companies--dismantled more than a decade ago: Designating one agency as a "single point of contact" on each brand. P&G says it's testing ways to change its agency model to improve collaboration and marketing plans while reducing the number of transactions for its brands and marketers.

The tests aim to simplify a structure in which a single brand and its marketers may work with more than a dozen media, advertising, promotion and design shops in the U.S. alone. It doesn't, however, necessarily mean consolidating all disciplines within a single agency or even within a single holding company, a P&G spokeswoman says.

At the same time, P&G is moving to simplify its internal management of agencies and brands. Earlier this month, it designated 14 general managers as "brand franchise leaders" over the company's largest global brands. The idea, a spokeswoman says, is for P&G to have a single point of contact for agencies analogous to the single point of contact on the agency side.

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