Procter & Gamble Honors Innovation Partners

P&G is honoring its top Connect+ Develop open innovation partners, the firms that helped get its products to market in half the time, drove global innovation breakthroughs and helped build connections, collaborations and product equity.

As part of its Annual C+D Partnership Celebration, P&G is recognizing seven, among its hundreds of partners, for their innovation and collaboration that have driven business results.

This year’s winners include MonoSol of La Porte, IN, which partnered with P&G to develop Tide Pods and has earned the title of P&G’s 2012 Connect+Develop Partner of the Year.

A key part of project was MonoSol’s innovation of a clear film that separates the chambers, dissolves completely even in varied degrees of cold water yet holds up to wet hands.

“We wouldn’t have been able to deliver the biggest breakthrough in laundry in 20 years if we hadn’t partnered and collaborated with MonoSol on a solution to what seemed to be an unsolvable proposition,” said P&G CEO Bob McDonald.

The James N. Gamble Product Innovation Award was presented to Zobele Group of Trento, Italy. Zobele partnered with P&G to create a special scent-releasing membrane that made Febreze Set & Refresh. Zobele helped deliver the innovation to market in months versus years and its teams went on to reapply the membrane technology to Febreze Car Vent Clips and to the new Honeywell Febreze Freshness Floor Fans launched this summer in North America, according to P&G.

There were two Innovation Capability Awards—Beanstalk of New York and d&a Visual Insights of Israel—which were honored for partnerships that have enabled successful execution of C+D work.

Beanstalk is P&G’s exclusive global licensing agency, working across all brands in the company, helping develop and execute licensing strategies and partnerships. They have worked to build dozens of licensing agreements that have grown P&G brands and brand equity, including Tide, Dawn, Cover Girl, Scope, Bounce, Max Factor, Febreze and Old Spice.

d&a Visual Insights, a P&G partner for five years, provides P&G C+D teams unique landscaping, mapping and insight generation using proprietary technologies and algorithms that support P&G’s ecosystem analysis platform. d&a has successfully delivered more than two dozen projects across P&G functions and BUs.

The Trademark Licensee Partner of the Year is Butler Home Products of Marlborough, MA.

There were two Public/Private Partnership winners—the University of Cincinnati Simulation Center of Cincinnati and Center for Competitive Creative Design at Cranfield University of Cambridge, England This award recognizes outstanding public/private collaboration, including work in securing external funding sources and access to IP or capabilities.

According to P&G, more than 50% of the company’s innovations contain a key element of external partnership including Tide Total Care, TidePods, Downy Single Rinse, Clairol Foam, Olay Smooth Finish, Febreze Set n Refresh, Bounce Drier Bars, Swiffer Dusters, Olay Regenerist, and CoverGirl LashBlast Mascara.

More info: www.pg.com