Avon taps MediaMonks to run digital content creation hubs globally

Avon has appointed S4 Capital’s MediaMonks to build and run digital content creation hubs around the world.

MediaMonks will create a digital tool, which Avon has called Content Studio, to "develop and distribute high-quality brand and product content at scale" on an "always-on" basis for the beauty brand.

These assets will include videos, gifs, and gamified content as well as "new and innovative" formats.

MediaMonks will launch Content Studio in four of Avon’s markets—the UK, Brazil, Mexico and Russia—in March and expects to create up to 12,000 assets a year in more than 50 markets.

"MediaMonks will provide an ongoing stream of relevant content, delivered at scale—multi-language, multi-platform—and deployed weekly," Avon and MediaMonks said.

"The studio will integrate data and analytics, inform the development and deployment of consumer-relevant content and optimise performance."

Content Studio is a virtual tool and MediaMonks is not expected to run a physical space for Avon.

James Thompson, chief beauty and brand officer at Avon who joined in November 2018, said the brand was embarking on a "new era" as the company, which has millions of direct sellers, becomes more digitised.

"Avon already has huge brand recognition and massive global social media reach," Thompson said. "This partnership [with MediaMonks] gives us the opportunity to unleash the inherent potential, with always-on, engaging content to delight, entertain and inform our [direct sellers and their] customers." 

Victor Knaap, chief executive of MediaMonks, said Content Studio will allow Avon "to unlock its ecommerce potential" by "delivering relevant content to customers at the right time to optimise impact". 

A growing number of brands are asking agencies and production companies to create and tailor always-on, personalised content—dubbed "dynamic creative optimisation".

Sir Martin Sorrell, executive chairman of S4 Capital, told Campaign’s breakfast briefing event "Back to the Future: When Sorrell met MediaMonks" last autumn that clients want fewer "big set pieces" such as 30-second TV spots and there is a move towards more "always-on" messaging and content.

"The nearest equivalent to my mind is a political campaign," he said, explaining how advertisers are changing. "They have to be much quicker and much more proactive and reactive."

Thompson, a former chief marketing officer at Diageo North America, was a panellist at that event.

Avon spends about $118 million on advertising and consolidated its global online and offline media planning and buying with Publicis Media’s Spark Foundry last autumn.

Sorrell set up S4 Capital in May 2018 after stepping down as WPP chief executive in acrimonious circumstances.

He went on to buy MediaMonks in July 2018 for €300 million ($341 million) and reportedly won Procter & Gamble’s Braun in December after beating WPP in a competitive pitch.

P&G and MediaMonks have not confirmed the account win.