It is sort of appropriate that a man in control of a marketing budget big enough to impress Roman Abramovich is a Chelsea supporter. But there is little else about Simon Clift that says here is a man with a few billion to spend on turning brands of soap and deodorant into household names.
More lying than sitting on a chair in Singapore’s Suntec convention centre, Clift is as relaxed as it is possible to be in a room chilled to arctic temperatures. With one leg swinging over one arm of the chair, Unilever’s global CMO talks whimsically about the company he has worked for all of his career.
Unilever has changed more in the last three years than in the last 30, observes Clift, who is just the sort of person the company needs to see these changes through, say those who know him. The worldwide CEO of Unilever’s media agency MindShare, Dominic Proctor, says: “Simon is hugely counter-cultural. I’m forever astonished that he works at Unilever.”
One of Clift’s biggest tasks has been to implement a restructured marketing department, which to look at Dove’s ‘Campaign for real beauty’ or Axe’s ‘The Axe effect’ seems to be getting results.
The rethink is partly the result of a dramatic corporate rejuvenation plan which began in 2000. Unilever’s famous ‘Path to growth’ strategy has meant the death of hundreds of underperforming brands, but more resources for those that remain. To ensure these “star” brands grow at the required speed in as many markets as possible, Clift has given more power to the people who manage them.
He explains: “Unilever used to be made up of layer upon layer of people increasingly likely to say ‘no’ to new ideas the higher they were up the corporate ladder. We were rightly known as the abominable no-men.” So now, rather than senior management having the final say on which advertising gets bought, that decision is the responsibility of a new rank — the global brand director. “He who briefs, decides,” says Clift. “I’m not allowed near ads anymore. My job is to make space for people to create great advertising.”
Which may explain why McCann Erickson lost Unilever’s ice cream account in January. “McCann couldn’t use our own structural hurdles as an excuse for poor work anymore. We removed those barriers and they (McCann) became exposed.”
The Path to growth brand cull - from 1,600 to 400 globally - has allowed Unilever to do things with its marketing budget it couldn’t in the past. With a hint of Abramovich, Clift says: “We’re spending less on signing Madonna (for Sunsilk) than on finding local stars in lots of different countries.”
It is with big border-crossing ideas that Clift has built his reputation as a creative marketer and silenced a few of his detractors who say that he is averse to thinking non-traditionally. He proved it first with Axe, sacking Lintas (now Lowe) and hiring BBH, which gave the world geeks with remarkable powers of seduction. Dove, too, is now world famous, although neither brands have always attracted the prescripted sort of fame. As Clift notes: “Axe and Dove have taken Unilever into an entirely new category: controversy.”
Political activists snipe that while Dove’s ‘Real beauty’ is about boosting young girls’ self-esteem, Axe is sexist, labeling women as subjects of male fantasies. “My argument is that both brands are about building confidence,” says Clift. “Besides, nothing we do is going to change a 17 year-old boy’s interest in beautiful women.”
As for Asia, Clift says it is Unilever’s most important operation, and one that is “carved into our hearts”. In India, it is the country’s biggest FMCG firm (it spends over three times more on advertising than Procter & Gamble) while in China, where P&G is bigger, Unilever has plenty of catching up to do. But it is not a region Clift finds easy to operate in. A former colleague says: “The Asia part of the organisation is not aligned to embrace the Simon Clift type. It does not welcome the global approach, and so Simon finds it difficult to get things done.”
But after 25 years at Unilever, and with nothing to prove, there’s little to suggest that Clift won’t succeed in further globalising the approach to marketing. Particularly if his relations with his agencies is anything to go by. “You don’t get better work by beating your partners harder,” he says. “The world already has plenty of clients who think they are Napolean.”
Simon Clift’s CV
2005 Chief marketing officer and group VP, personal care, Unilever
2001 President, marketing, Unilever
2000 Chairman, personal care, Unilever, Latin America
1997 Managing director, Elida Gibbs Brazil
1994 Marketing director, Elida Gibbs UK
1991 Marketing director, Unilever Mexico
