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Procter & Gamble Co. is relaunching its Daily Defense shampoo and conditioner line and has hired Barefoot of Cincinnati to handle the project.

Daily Defense was discontinued in the United States last year, but P&G had decided to bring the line back to shelves, Ad Age magazine reported. The brand previously had been handled by Publicis Groupe’s Kaplan Thaler Group of New York.

P&G has opted not to use an agency of record, instead giving the work to Barefoot on a project basis. Ad Age said the move is part of a quiet shift occurring at consumer goods companies, such as P&G and Unilever. Those companies have been focusing on fewer, bigger brands and are increasingly dropping agency-of-record assignments in favor of deals like the one with Barefoot.

“I think it’s definitely a mini-trend unfolding before our eyes,” Arthur Anderson, principal with consulting firm Morgan Anderson Associates, told Ad Age.

In addition to Daily Defense, Cincinnati-based P&G manufactures and markets a variety of well-known consumer brands, including Tide, Downy, Charmin and Folgers.