Blockbuster Moves by Global Creative and Media Agencies - Winmo
Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, several major global creative and media agencies experienced significant account shifts, including Carnival consolidating its North America and UK business at Omnicom’s PHD, E-Trade moving media planning from WPP to MDC’s Assembly, Spin Master shifting its $30 million media account to IPG’s Initiative, Volkswagen of America awarding global media to Omnicom’s PHD after a year-long review, Discover transferring media planning from Dentsu Aegis’s Vizeum to Publicis’ Spark, and Vonage engaging MDC’s Crispin Porter + Bogusky, marking a notable summer of agency realignments.
Unless there’s something going on behind the scenes with Green Giant and Electrolux’s media accounts, the summer’s agency shuffles are just about done. Here’s a rundown of some of the biggest agency moves between Memorial Day and Labor Day, courtesy of DailyVista.
The year really kicked into gear when Procter & Gamble made a giant leap to Hearts & Sciences, but that was back in April, so it’s not included in this list. DailyVista subscribers can click the brand names for full stories.
Carnival
Summer’s agency merry-go-round began with Carnival consolidating its North America and UK business at Omnicom’s PHD in New York. PHD had been the agency of record for Carnival Cruise and Cunard Line brands for the last few years, while other brand business had been held by various other shops.
E-Trade
E-Trade moved media planning and buying from WPP (Ogilvy and GroupM) to MDC’s Assembly. Rich Muhlstock, senior VP-branding and acquisition at E-Trade Financial, said, “We are pleased to bring on a media agency that understands how to best navigate today’s complex media ecosystem, engage our audiences and drive performance.”
Spin Master
Following a three-month review, the toy manufacturer moved its $30 million media account to IPG’s Initiative in Los Angeles, leaving MediaCom which had handled media planning and buying for the last five years.
Volkswagen of America
This review lasted for most of a year and concluded with Omnicom’s PHD adding global media for the North American VW brand to the Porsche account it already held. MediaCom, the outgoing incumbent, suffered another big loss in a little over a week with VW’s move coming on the heels of Spin Master’s switch.
Discover
Discover, the fourth-largest credit card brand in the U.S., moved its media planning from Dentsu Aegis’s Vizeum in NYC to Spark in Chicago, part of Publicis’ SMG network.
Vonage
Vonage, a pioneer of early VoIP services, is now looking to MDC’s Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Miami for creative work. FCB New York is the outgoing incumbent.
Famous Footwear
The shoe retailer tapped The Richards Group to handle creative, brand strategy, digital and social strategy to add some polish to its brand. Famous Footwear CMO Will Smith said, “We were looking for complete cross-platform integration, outstanding creative chops, and strong strategic insights. The Richards Group delivers on all these elements.”
PulteGroup
The Richards Group was re-hired by PulteGroup, the nation’s largest homebuilder, as creative AOR after losing the account in 2010. Pulte are set to focus on digital natives and mature millennials, with PulteGroup CMO Manish Shrivastava saying, “It is critical in today’s world of consumer distraction and media fragmentation that we create rich, deep and aspirational connections with our consumers.”
LG Electronics
The electronics brand is looking to take on Apple, Samsung, HTC and Xiaomi in a cellphone battle royale, which likely means more media dollars being pushed in the direction of Horizon in New York, making the short journey south on 7th Avenue from Mindshare.
IKEA
IKEA moved its global media account to WPP and Dentsu Aegis, which means local level companies under the WPP and Dentsu Aegis umbrellas will compete for the business in local markets.
Chick-fil-A
Chick-fil-A ended its 22-year association with Dallas-based The Richards Group, spreading creative, media, brand identity and social across multiple shops. Jon Bridges, helming the restaurant’s marketing since January 2015, has brought a focus on data and pushed for increased programmatic buying.
Harley Davidson
Harley Davidson left behind Wolfes (creative), Starcom (media) and DigitasLBi (digital) in favor of Team Ignite of Interpublic Group for creative, media and digital work. Harley’s marketing VP Shelley Paxton said, “Creative, digital and media absolutely has to be a single strategy to live together in this day and age.”
Hertz
The car rental company put Group M’s MEC in the driving seat as media AOR for the U.S., Canada and Latin America. While Hertz tends to load its ad activity into the first half of the year, there might be some exciting moves as MEC establishes itself.
Symantec
After acquiring Blue Coat Systems earlier this summer, Symantec moved media planning and buying from Grey San Francisco to PHD. There’s no confirmation yet about whether Symantec’s consumer anti-virus brand, Norton, is making the move with the enterprise-focused business yet.
Red Robin
The burger fast-casual chain tapped KBS and The Media Kitchen for digital media, while Initiative in Los Angeles will handle traditional media.
AT&T DirecTV
AT&T moved more than a billion dollars of creative and media accounts to Omnicom. The company parted ways with Grey (which had DirecTV creative) and MEC (which had run media planning and buying for AT&T and Cricket Wireless). Omnicom’s BBDO will likely get the DirecTV creative, and Hearts & Sciences will be given the media planning and buying.
DSW
DSW sent its media business to Dentsu Aegis’s 360i in Chicago. There’s no news of whether Resource Ammirati will be kept on as creative AOR, though new CMO Amy Stevenson has shown a willingness to shake up the roster.
Planet Fitness
Planet Fitness is seeking to transition from challenger to champion. Red Tettemer O’Connell + Partners have been handling creative and traditional media while Ansira handled digital, but IPG’s Hill Holiday has been named new AOR. A new agency will be sought out to speed the growth plan.
HP Enterprise
Hewlett-Packard’s cloud service and storage business worked with Ark Advisors to review its agency relationships, and has moved most of its global creative and media business to Publicis, with teams at Prodigious, DigitasLBi, Optimedia and Razorfish. Previous agencies included BBDO (creative), Doremus (demand gen), Rapp (direct marketing) and Omnicom Media Group (media).
Chobani
Chobani appointed Horizon as its media planning and buying agency. Chobani brought its creative in-house last year, so it wasn’t a huge surprise that media would come under review. The recent appointment of a new chief creative officer and the fact that Chobani has been working with agencies on a per-project basis may mean a new creative agency announcement soon.
And that’s it. All you need to know to have the kind of conversations at the water cooler you should be having when your boss walks by. If this kind of intel makes your life easier, or if you just like seeing what business is moving to where, you can get new info delivered to your inbox every day by subscribing to DailyVista.
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