Hasta La Creative!

Consumer electronics company Sonos has selected WPP experience agency SET as its lead retail strategy and design agency for its activities in the coming year.

“We believe that once you experience a whole home sound system, it’s pretty obvious how awesome it is to have music throughout your home. We want to find ways to bring that experience to life in retail stores and online,” Sonos director, global retail marketing Omar Gurnah said in a statement. “It’s a big ask, but we’ve been hugely impressed with SET’s ability to help us with the challenge, both strategically and creatively; we couldn’t be more excited to work together.”

SET will service the account out of its New York office, with its first work expected in early 2018.

“SET is charged with delivering an exceptional retail experience for Sonos that extends their product campaigns through both physical and digital channels,” SET head of client services Emilie Vasu explained in a statement.

“We are excited to work with such a progressive experience led and like-minded brand as Sonos,” added SET CEO Alasdair Lloyd-Jones, who was promoted to the chief executive role last month after previously serving as chief strategy officer and president. “The challenges and opportunities of modern retail engagement are exciting ones and we’re confident we can help Sonos expand their brand in this environment while ensuring we deliver a consistent, impactful and relevant brand experience across the many varied channels and markets.”

Sonos spent just over $10 million on measured media in the U.S. last year and nearly $9.5 million in the first six months of 2017, according to Kantar Media.

Last November, Sonos stopped the installation of subway ads after learning that “Subway Therapy” sticky notes were being taken down to make space for them. In February, the brand ran a 90-second “Wake Up The Silent Home” spot created by Anomaly New York. Last month Anomaly introduced another spot for the brand, presenting its smart speaker as both “The Smart Speaker for Music Lovers” and a helpful tool in new parents’ sleep routine.

NBA simulation video game franchise NBA 2K has selected Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners as its new integrated marketing agency of record, following a review.

The assignment will include developing and executing a cross-campaign across broadcast, digital, brand partnership and point-of-sale marketing, promoting the release of NBA 2K19. BSSP’s first work for the brand will launch in spring of 2018.

“We chose BSSP for their ability to deliver concepts beyond advertising that drive consumer awareness and resonate with the NBA lifestyle,” NBA 2K vice president, marketing Alfie Brody. “The agency showed an innovative way of thinking about our brand that leverages our existing equities as well as expanding into opportunities that go beyond traditional marketing.”

“NBA 2K is a world-class gaming franchise, emerging as a brand with cultural connectivity,” added BSSP executive creative director Tom Coates. “They value creativity and work that is interesting and memorable. We are excited to be on their team.”

CP+B L.A. previously handled creative duties for the NBA 2K franchise, after taking over for Zambezi in 2014. Their recent work for the brand includes a campaign last December promoting the most recent version of the game’s Fitbit partnership and last April’s “Legends Live On” Kobe Bryant tribute.
Earlier this month we learned that CP+B is shrinking the size of its Los Angeles office, moving into a smaller location within the same Santa Monica building. Back in August, CP+B laid off around five percent of its Los Angeles office, after Infiniti moved parts of its global ad business from CP+B to 72andSunny. CP+B L.A. officially became global headquarters for the Infinti account last March.

For BSSP the account wins follows Mitsubishi naming the agency as AOR in September, following seven years with 180LA. BSSP resigned from the Mini account ahead of a procurement-mandated review back in March. The agency had served as U.S. agency of record for Mini since 2005.

NBA 2K spent just under $6 million on paid media promotions last year, according to Kantar Media.

As creative agencies compete for fewer, smaller, more project-oriented contracts, the most important question for many media shops is “do we really want to go through yet another review?”

According to three people who spoke to us, the latest client to issue a media RFP is TriHonda, the group consisting of more than 60 New York/New Jersey/Connecticut-area Honda dealerships.

The review remains in its early stages, and it marks the first time TriHonda has sought a new agency since 2012, when it assigned creative and media work to Publicis Kaplan Thaler and MediaVest, respectively.

A Publicis Media representative confirmed that the incumbent currently known as Starcom would not defend in the review, though it will continue working with other Honda dealerships across the country.

Honda’s national creative and media agency of record RPA declined to comment on the RFP, which is unrelated to a January review in which the indie shop beat out MediaVest to win back the account after three years.

Honda spends about $600 million on marketing in the U.S. each year. Two parties familiar with the business placed TriHonda’s annual paid media budget at just below $40 million, which is the same total Adweek reported in 2012.

We’ve been unable to reach TriHonda for comment.

It’s unclear whether TriHonda still retains a creative agency of record since the organization’s social media accounts only share national campaigns and its YouTube page is bare.

But here’san uncomfortable trip back in time to 1987, when thinly-disguised jokes about sexual dysfunction were apparently all the rage.

Spirits company Campari has reached out to agencies regarding its Skyy Vodka brand, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.

The Skyy brand has been in something of a transitional phase since splitting with Venables Bell & Partners, which became its first lead creative partner in 2013 after Campari bought the brand for an estimated $200 million plus. The account had previously been with branding agency Lambesis, which made all those famous print ads, for 15 years.

Early last year, we noted that the brand was shopping around for a new creative agency partner. Its most recent campaign, launched in April, came from New York’s Agency 5 O’Clock, which specializes in beverage clients. That shop was co-founded by former BFG Communications VP and brand strategist Larry McGearty.

Here’s the spot, which was part of a larger campaign called “Make. Every Day.” shot by Irish fashion photographer Tony Kelly.

According to our source, Skyy reached out to several prominent agencies, but talks with at least one shop later broke down. Back in 2014, the brand’s estimated media spend was around $30 million.

Campari PR responded to our query regarding the review by writing, “we don’t comment on rumors or speculation.”

We also reached out to 5 O’Clock and will update this post if we receive more information.

In case you missed it, Liberty Mutual’s three-plus month review ended today with the insurance giant picking Goodby Silverstein & Partners to handle creative for its consumer business unit.

A statement from consumer markets CMO Emily Fink, via the Adweek report:

“We are very excited to work with the talented team at Goodby Silverstein & Partners. They bring proven experience in growing national brands, accomplished creative leadership, as well as strong strategic thinking and analytic capabilities to the table—all of which will drive our brand and business to the next level.”

As noted in our August post, the final rounds of the review pitted incumbent Havas, which won the business back in 2013, against GS&P, Grey and McCann New York.

Liberty Mutual will no longer work with Havas creative as of January 1, but the Havas Helia division will retain the CRM portion of the business.

From Havas:

Liberty Mutual is a fantastic company, and has been an amazing client and partner for the last three years. In that time, Liberty has grown from the No. 6 Home and Auto Insurance Provider to No. 3.

Together we have built one of the most iconic advertising campaigns the insurance category has seen—”Truth Tellers.”

Thus, we are disappointed in Liberty’s decision to part ways but wish the them nothing but the best and look forward to potential opportunities down the road.

The precise size of the win is not clear at this time, but one source close to the review estimated the total annual revenue from this business at $8-12 million.

Hill Holliday has been creative AOR for the larger brand since 2005, and that won’t change. The company spent more than $400 million in measured media last year, according to Kantar.

So you’re all aware that the Department of Labor fined financial advisory firm State Street Corporation $5 million last month for allegedly underpaying 305 women and 15 black employees during the years 2010 and 2011.

This news was especially noteworthy, of course, because the company’s subsidiary State Street Global Advisors was the sponsor of McCann New York’s “Fearless Girl,” the most exhaustively over-analyzed work of advertising in the last decade (at least).

Today, SSGA CEO Ron O’Hanley assured CNBC that his company is and has been committed to equal pay for equal work.

So that was pretty straightforward.

It’s also in keeping with what CMO Stephen Tisdalle told a panel at Advertising Week:

“Do we as an organization reflect the penultimate makeup and reflection in being a diverse organization? No. And that was a risk because a lot of the people felt the message might be diluted by a lot of cynical people saying, ‘Well who are you to talk about gender diversity when you’re not a perfect embodiment of it?’”

And so it has.

This is a bit of a complicated story, and few read past the headline about the company behind “Fearless Girl” agreeing to a multi-million dollar settlement.

SSGA is not the same organization as State Street Corporation, and the filing was based on data collected during a mandatory compliance review that happened because State Street is a federal contractor. In other words, it was not based on individual complaints made by the employees in question.

While the corporate org knew about the audit that started in 2012 and ultimately led to the fine, it’s not clear when SSGA’s leadership found out about the settlement. Most importantly, we don’t know whether they had any idea that this bombshell would drop when they commissioned McCann to set up Fearless Girl right across from Cipriani and that big bull.

But then O’Hanley didn’t get very specific in his company’s defense, either. And this story will forever remain a very good case study on the dangers of wrapping your brand’s message in social activism.

In old, sort-of-related news, aspiring sculptor Alex Gardega died earlier this month after being struck by a subway train on the Upper East Side. We bring him up because his lasting claim to fame will almost certainly be the small papier-mâché dog he placed next to the statue; it appeared to be peeing on her shoe.

We even interviewed him about it, and he said, “This is corporate fake feminism, and I’m totally pro-real feminism. That’s not what this sculpture is, and I thought I would enlighten [people].”

Almost exactly one year after concluding a 29-brand review by consolidating all digital work with SapientRazorfish, food giant J.M. Smucker has launched a new review.

This one is more limited, applying only to the CRM portion of the business.

“We are conducting an RFP to identify a CRM partner to only a few select organizations,” a spokesperson confirmed today.

A SapientRazorfish representative deferred to the client for comment. According to two parties close to the review, the aforementioned organizations include both the incumbent and Omnicom’s RAPP. The latter agency declined to comment.

The review, according to the party who first alerted us, stems from changes in the organization following the Sapient Razorfish merger. While the original six-month review concerned web design, SEO, CRM and ecommerce work in addition to digital creative, SapientRazorfish has handled less of that work over time. The company has also gone through a series of leadership changes during the same period.

Creative and media for the brand remain with Grey and Carat.

According to Kantar Media, J.M. Smucker spent $86 million on paid media in 2015. It’s unclear how much of that spend went to digital.

Just over a week after concluding the global review that sent most of its $2 billion-plus media planning and buying duties to Dentsu’s Vizeum, AB InBev has parted with one of the key players in that process.

Global VP of consumer connections Andy Meldrum will be leaving the company at the end of this month after 17 years in the beverage business.

“Andy … will be leaving at the end of October to pursue other personal and career opportunities,” said a spokesperson. “We wish him well in his future endeavors and thank him for his contribution to our company.”

The representative did not elaborate on the reasons for his departure or the aforementioned opportunities.

Meldrum was a member of the executive team leading the review, which officially launched in March and initially involved all of the “Big Six” holding groups including Havas. The biggest factor in Dentsu’s eventual win, one party told us, was price.

While Dentsu won the bulk of the work including agency of record duties for Europe, Africa and North America, MediaCom also retained some of its responsibilities in Central and South America, with Publicis retaining much of Asia and adding some more work in Columbia, Peru and Ecuador and Omnicom picking up Australia, India and Vietnam.

Meldrum was identified by a party involved in the review as one of the individuals present when the winners were announced earlier this month. He also recently transferred from London to New York. Before joining AB InBev last year in the global role, he spent more than four years with SABMiller, working as head of media and digital brand communications in Europe. He previously held similar positions at Australia’s Carlton & United Breweries of Foster’s fame as well as Diageo and P&G.

Today, AB InBev coincidentally celebrated its one-year anniversary as a “megabrewer” following the official announcement of the SABMiller merger.

Popchips has selected independent London-based creative agency 18 Feet & Rising as lead creative agency for its first global campaign.

The appointment marks the first time the brand has tasked a single agency with handling creative for both the U.K. and U.S. markets. 18 Feet & Rising will be responsible for brand and creative development across both regions.

The agency’s first campaign for Popchips will launch in January of 2018 and roll out across the U.S. next summer.

“We believe that the long-term strategic vision combined with the  with the creative energy at 18 Feet & Rising will really capture the hearts of consumers in our two largest markets,” popchips CMO Marc Seguin said in a statement.

“This is the first time 18 Feet & Rising will be working on an account both sides of the Atlantic. We are delighted to be partnering with popchips, true crisp revolutionaries, who are as excited about creating bold and powerful work as we are,” added 18 Feet & Rising executive creative director Anna Carpen.

The Bronx Zoo has appointed DiMassimo Goldstein as its agency of record, tasking the New York-based independent agency with driving attendance and spreading the brand message for the largest metropolitan zoo in the country.

The assignment follows an extensive review which pitted DiMassimo Goldstein against five other agencies.

When Deutsch took over for Young & Rubicam as agency of record back in 2007, Adweek reported that Bronx Zoo parent organization Wildlife Conservation Society spent under $500,000 on measured media in each of the previous two years.

“Working with The Bronx Zoo is not only the dream of a lifetime,” said DiMassimo Goldstein founder and CEO Mark DiMassimo, “but it also represents an opportunity to inspire people to enjoy extraordinary experiences that bring them closer to the wonders of the natural world. Win Win!”