Define Drivers: Keys To A New Caddy; A Bespoke Chocolate Egg; Dinner at La Banane

Cadillac Canada has partnered with renowned Toronto chocolate maker Brandon Olsen on a direct mail campaign that puts a decadent twist on the standard test drive invitation. Working with its lead agency Red Lion, the automaker tucked away keys to new Cadillac CT6s inside the hugely popular “Ziggy Stardust Disco Egg” from Olsen’s trendy Toronto […]

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The Bronx Zoo Names DiMassimo Goldstein as Agency of Record

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!”

NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights Selects SK+G as Agency of Record

NHL expansion team the Vegas Golden Knights has selected Las Vegas-based SK+G as its agency of record.

“We are beyond excited at the opportunity to work with the Vegas Golden Knights,” SK+G managing director John Schadler said in a statement. “We feel honored to be a part of launching the city’s first major league sports team.”

“We are excited to partner with SK+G during our inaugural NHL season,” added Vegas Golden Knights chief marketing officer Brian Killingsworth. “We were impressed with their passion and creativity. It was also important that we work with a home-grown agency that’s ‘Vegas Born’ just like the Golden Knights. As a member of the Las Vegas community, we want to support local businesses.”

The Vegas Golden Knights will make their debut during the upcoming 2017-2018 NHL Season as part of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. Owned by a Black Knight Sports & Entertainment consortium led by Bill Foley, the team will play its home games at the T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas strip.

The team will join an SK+G client roster that includes MGM Resorts, Planet Hollywood, Cirque de Soleil, Wolfgang Puck and Waldorf Astoria.

Minnesota Twins Name Carmichael Lynch as Agency of Record

As the Minnesota Twins celebrate a 16-0 blowout of the San Diego Padres attempt to lock in the second AL Wild Card spot, Minnesota agency Carmichael Lynch has a win of its own to announce.

The MLB team named the Minneapolis as its new agency or record, following a review, ending a 13-year relationship with fellow Twin Cities shop Periscope.

When Periscope was first named AOR back in September of 2004, the account was valued at an estimated $1 million per year. It’s unclear if the business still approaches that estimation, as the Twins organization has taken more of its advertising work in-house in recent years.

Carmichael Lynch will be tasked with handling creative, brand strategy, media planning and buying for the Twins, with the assignment encompassing TV, radio, experiential, website, digital display and collateral design.

“The Minnesota Twins are thrilled to be in partnership with Carmichael Lynch as we collectively work to grow our brand and develop deeper connections with our fans and community,” Twins president and CEO Dave St. Peter said in a statement. “All of us with the Twins are excited to be working with the talented and experienced Carmichael Lynch team and look forward to the creation of great work that engages Twins Territory.”

“As our hometown team, helping tell the Twins’ story and rallying their fans means a lot to us as an agency,” added Carmichael Lynch CEO Marcus Fischer. “This is an exciting opportunity to bring a cohesive idea and strategy to life across all disciplines and build on the team’s momentum. We’re looking forward to the work ahead.”

The assignment is effective immediately and Carmichael Lynch’s first work for the Twins is expected to launch at the start of the 2018 MLB season.

We Hear: Martin Sorrell Assembling One of His Famous Teams to Save the Papa John’s Business

In case you missed it (you almost certainly didn’t), Papa John’s has launched a creative agency review with extra toppings—its first since 2014, when Grey won the business away from Zimmerman.

AdAge broke the news yesterday, almost exactly three and a half months after former Wendy’s vp of advertising Brandon Rhoten joined the company as its new CMO. Like clockwork, he alerted “10 agencies and holding companies” with the goal of ending the review later this year and starting a “new creative vision” for the pizza chain.

Rhoten implied that Grey could retain the business as long as it sticks to “the new expectations” but also emphasized a desire to name an agency partner with capabilities that go beyond “traditional” creative. Perhaps he has heard that Grey has its own post-production studio.

Today a client spokesperson said that he cannot reveal which agencies are involved, adding, “We need a creative AOR that can help Papa John’s stand out in the commoditized pizza category and make clear Papa John’s commitment to better pizza. All in a world where more than 60 percent of our domestic sales come from digital channels.”

In short, Papa John’s wants to compete against Domino’s by focusing more on digital delivery orders, social media and stunts like the kind that CP+B has been dreaming up for a decade or so. They really missed out on the emoji ordering and the self-driving cars.

Now we hear that Sir Martin Sorrell really wants to keep the account, which makes some sense as Papa John’s generally spends between $100 and $150 million on paid media in the U.S. each year. He is purportedly in the process of arranging one of his famous cross-agency teams to pitch the business, though it’s not clear at this time which shops will contribute beyond the incumbent.

A spokesperson for Grey deferred to the client for comment, and WPP corporate PR hasn’t gotten back to us.

On a related note, we find it kind of interesting that Papa John’s likes to publicize the finalists in its creative reviews. Or at least it did back in the halcyon days of 2013. Anyway, something tells us Peyton Manning isn’t going anywhere.

[Pic via]

Justin’s Names TDA Boulder as its First Agency of Record

Justin’s, the specialty nut butter and nut better snacks maker which was acquired by Hormel Foods last year, has selected TDA Boulder as its first agency of record.

The appointment expands on a relationship dating back to 2010, when TDA Boulder helped develop Justin’s current brand identity and packaging.

“We are thrilled to formalize what has been a close, long-term relationship with TDA_Boulder,” Justin’s president Mike Guanella said in a statement. “They will be a strategic partner for Justin’s as we move to our next phase of growth and innovation.”

The assignment initially encompass online content, OOH, print and digital advertising. In the future, TDA Boulder will handle all design, advertising and brand marketing for Justin’s. The agency’s first campaign is expected some time this fall.

“Hello Humankindness” Campaign Is Just What The Doctor Ordered

Dignity Health is the fifth largest health system in the nation and the largest hospital provider in California. The healthcare brand may also be one of the most compassionate in the land. Given the emotional turmoil saturating our media today, it’s a pleasant relief to be reminded that people are caring individuals and capable of […]

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MUH-TAY-ZIK | HOF-FER Wins Project Work for Lyft

Lyft has added a new agency to the list contributing to its ongoing attempts to unseat Uber.

According to a couple of parties who reached out to us, the San Francisco office of MUH-TAY-ZIK | HOF-FER recently won a project-based assignment for the ride share company. The work will be digital/interactive, but we have very little in the way of details.

Representatives for both agency and client declined to comment. And it’s worth noting that Lyft’s main agency lineup of Wieden + Kennedy New York on creative and DigitasLBi San Francisco on digital will not be affected by this development.

Lyft also works with several other agencies on a similar per-project basis. They include Superfly Agency of San Francisco, Brooklyn’s Work & Co. and Matter Creative.

W+K won the business some time ago, but the news first broke in May to coincide with the announcement that Becca Lawson (formerly of Pandora, GS&P, BBH, etc.) was the company’s new VP of brand marketing. Wieden’s opening stunt happened over the summer when Lyft “took over” an L.A. car wash, but its first brand campaign has yet to debut.

According to a report in Inc. last week, Lyft’s efforts are (finally) paying off as the company has begun closing the market share gap in terms of U.S. downloads thanks, in part, to Uber’s own self-inflicted wounds.

Deutsch’s first brand campaign for that client is also set to launch soon.

We Hear: Mini Review Comes Down to R/GA and 360i

Back in March, BSSP made headlines for resigning the Mini account after more than 11 years.

It was the agency’s longest-held account, but the company’s reliance on procurement-mandated reviews and its assorted cost-cutting measures led to diminishing returns, and CEO Greg Stern told us that he couldn’t justify going through another review.

Several parties also indicated that parent company BMW had moved more of the creative work on that brand in-house after dropping BSSP for UM on the media side—and that it would continue to do so after the current review.

Now, we hear that the announcement will come in the next few days, with the final round pitting R/GA against 360i.

According to two individuals familiar with that matter, several of the agencies competing for some portion of the Mini business—along with that of its parent company—also took issue with the nature of the contract. These agencies allegedly included Anomaly, Huge, 360i and R/GA, at least two of which dropped out. The client then reportedly restructured the specifics.

There’s been a good bit of confusion on all sides as the specifics of the contract dispute and the nature of the assignments being considered are unclear. Some were initially called in to discuss the BMW brand, and it would appear that multiple briefs were involved. Others report a disconnect between the company’s marketing teams in Germany and the United States.

Beam of Boston has been Mini’s social and digital AOR for several, but we do not believe they were involved in the final rounds of the current review. According to one source, the client’s brief initially concerned “digital transformation” on BMW but later expanded to include the Mini brand as well.

For context, BMW will officially go into review next year, again due to procurement status. It is not clear whether global AOR KBS will defend.

Representatives from Anomaly, Huge, R/GA and 360i all declined to comment or did not respond to related messages this week.

When we reached out to Beam, a representative from the PR firm working on Mini responded, stating simply that the company would share more news “once the review process wraps in Q4.”

Anomaly Beats Droga5, R/GA to Win Carnival Cruise Creative Review

Carnival Cruise Line has chosen Anomaly over Droga5 and R/GA as its new creative agency of record, according to several parties close to the business.

Back in May, the Miami-based company split with former AOR Arnold after nearly a decade and issued an RFP seeking a new agency partner.

The final round of the review pitted Droga5 against Anomaly after R/GA was eliminated.

Spokespeople for R/GA and Droga5 declined to comment, and an Anomaly representative has not responded to emails today. A client representative also did not provide any information beyond stating that the company will be making a related announcement on the week of September 5th.

According to Kantar Media, Carnival’s recent $20-25 million yearly paid media budgets are nearly four times lower than the totals given when Arnold won the business in 2008. But the cruise industry is booming, and it would appear that Carnival plans to launch a major effort to promote itself accordingly.

It is unclear when Anomaly’s first work will launch.

We Hear: ESPN Picks Droga5 As Its Newest Creative Agency Partner

ESPN will soon announce a new partnership with Droga5, according to two parties with knowledge of the news who spoke to us anonymously today.

ESPN representatives have not yet responded to short-notice requests for comment. A Droga5 spokesperson declined to comment.

In January, Wieden + Kennedy made headlines across the ad industry by splitting with its former client of 25 years and signing with Fox Sports. According to several parties who later discussed that relationship, the shared contract ended late last year and both parties agreed to go their separate ways after hundreds of “This Is Sportscenter” ads. The company also has an in-house creative team in addition to working with other agencies such as 72andSunny. W+K produced fewer spots toward the end of its tenure.

One party who confirmed the win described the account as “super small,” and many media observers have also speculated on ESPN’s ability to survive declining cable subscription rates and ad revenue totals. Parent company Disney has suggested that the brand will not offer a direct to consumer service for several years, and in April ESPN laid off approximately 100 anchors, staffers and production team members.

According to Kantar Media, ESPN spent $26.3 million on paid media promoting its brand in 2016 and just under $9 million during the first half of this year.

The nature of the relationship between ESPN and Droga5 is not yet clear. It’s also not clear whether the appointment follows a competitive review. The agency’s most recent new business wins include Chinese gaming giant Tencent, Ancestry.com and Dos Equis, which had been with Havas for more than a decade.

We will update this post when more information comes in.

American Century Investments Selects Figliulo&Partners as U.S. Agency of Record

American Century Investments has appointed Figliulo&Partners as its U.S. creative agency of record after a review. Moving forward, the independent New York shop will be tasked with handling media planning and buying as well as creative and strategy for the Kansas-based investment management firm.

Prior to the review, ACI worked with Meers Advertising as its agency partner since July of 2016. According to Kantar Media, the client spent around $4.3 million on measured media last year, up from $3.7 million in 2015.

“American Century Investments prides itself on its nearly 60-year legacy of striving to help institutional and individual investors achieve financial goals,” senior vice president and global head of products Glen Casey said in a statement. “F&P will help us tell our client-centric story, while underscoring those attributes of our brand that distinguish American Century from other money management firms. We can’t wait to get to work as true partners and show the world what we’re all about.”

“F&P shares many of the values that American Century Investments was founded on, such as honesty and integrity. That’s what allows us to be such great, like-minded partners and will ultimately help us produce work that you wouldn’t expect from this category,” added F&P partner and chief creative officer Scott Vitrone, who joined the agency in that role this past February. “The company has a truly great story to tell, and we can’t wait to bring it to life.”

The agency’s first work for the client is expected some time in the last quarter of 2017.

The appointment represents the latest in a series of new business wins for F&P this year, the most recent being Georgia Pacific’s Vanity Fair. The agency has also worked with Macy’s since May of 2016—and this week we learned that multiple holding company shops are in talks with the retailer regarding its brand marketing efforts.

Bombardier Selects McCann Canada as Its Newest Agency Partner

Multinational aerospace and transportation company Bombardier selected McCann Canada as its new agency partner, following a review launched this spring involving Canadian and international agencies.

The assignment includes strategic marketing and communications but does not appear to be an agency of record assignment. McCann will lead the account out of its Montréal office and begin work immediately. Bombardier’s headquarters are also located in Montréal.

“McCann offered extensive experience and created a custom-built team to meet our needs, including expert resources from their national and global network. Their collective passion for our brand, relevant experience and the high level strategic thinking that they brought to the pitch process was unmatched,” Bombardier senior director, corporate strategy Stéphanie Laforest explained in a statement. “The bonus was having all that talent and ability on the ground in Montréal coupled with insights and resources from the global network that we can leverage for our international business units. Their expertise, from brand strategy through to connections planning and integrated creative solutions, put them on top and won them the business.”

“We wanted this win more than anything. Our team is passionate about the brand and proud that Bombardier, a pioneer in its field, is a recognized global leader. Our agency’s longstanding heritage in Montréal and our access to experts and on-the-ground resources in the international markets where Bombardier operates, are the perfect complement to their business,” added McCann Montréal president Mylène Savoie. “We firmly believe that the intersection between global and local is a huge opportunity for our clients in Montréal. Brands now have access to the most innovative media, technologies, experiences and creativity from around the world through our increased access to the McCann Worldgroup network.”

We Hear: Ogilvy in Talks to Handle Macy’s Brand Work

Macy’s is in talks with Ogilvy regarding its advertising business, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.

Ogilvy representatives deferred to the client for comment this week. A Macy’s spokesperson wrote, “We are always assessing our options to identify the best partner for the Macy’s brand.”

According to our sources, however, the talks are ongoing and Ogilvy New York looks to “take on” the Macy’s business. This would be different from recent moves by the classic retailer, which has long eschewed an agency of record in favor of hiring shops on a per-project basis for work usually focused on the holiday sales season.

The most recent RFP, issued in late 2015, ended with Macy’s picking BBH and Figliulo&Partners for campaigns which included a tribute to the famous Thanksgiving Day Parade by the former agency’s New York office. This followed a split between Macy’s and former creative partner JWT after more than a decade. At the time, the client declined to comment on whether the decision to stop working with that agency had anything to do with the Erin Johnson/Gustavo Martinez case, which had been making headlines for several weeks at that point.

BBH declined to comment on its relationship with Macy’s today, but more than one party told us it did not work with the company beyond the 2016 holiday effort. A Figliulo&Partners representative had not yet responded to our email when this post went live, though recent reports stated that the agency has continued to work on the account in some capacity into this summer.

Last April, CMO Martine Reardon stepped down to be replaced by Richard Lennox of Toys ‘R Us, who then announced plans to lead a turnaround by focusing on digital, closing stores and reducing staff. BBDO veteran Jim Reath joined Macy’s as its new SVP of marketing this May after running the Lowe’s account for several years.

Despite its well-publicized struggles, Macy’s remains a huge advertiser. The company spent nearly $600 million on U.S. measured media in 2016 according to Kantar Media, and its holiday ads are some of the retail sector’s most-watched each year.

Walton Isaacson Selected to Help NYPD Diversify Police Force Pending City Approval

The New York Police Department is seeking city approval to appoint Walton Isaacson to an assignment to help it diversify the city’s police force through recruitment, DNA Info reports this week.

The five-year recruitment outreach assignment is reportedly worth some $54 million.

“The NYPD has the intent to award the contract to Walton Isaacson, however, the contract award is not official until Comptroller registration,” a spokesperson for Walton Isaacson said in a statement. “The Public Hearing will be conducted on 8/17/17 to be held at 1 Centre Street, Mezzanine, at 10:00 AM.  The Public Hearing Notice was advertised in The City Record 8/4/17.”

The NYPD’s police force is reportedly around 50 percent white, while DNA Info cites that the  the city itself is 44 percent white, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. DNA Info adds that, according to NYPD statistics, “There are more than 9,980 Hispanic officers, 5,515 black officers, 2,692 Asian officers and 19 who are Native American.”

According to the request for proposal, the assignment to diversify the NYPD through recruitment practices specifically seeks black, Asian, Muslim, Jewish, female and LGBTQ + applicants.

Walton Isaacson has worked with brands including McDonald’s, Lexus, the Los Angeles Dodgers, Axe, Knob Creek, the Oscars, Basil Hayden’s, Cruzan Rum and Dove Hair. The agency was named creative agency of record for Spalding in November of 2015, following a review. Last year, Walton Isaacson welcomed Jeff Davidoff  as its first president and Christine Villanueva as senior vice president, head of strategy.

In March of 2016, the agency took on then-candidate Trump for immigrant rights organization CHIRLA Action Fund with “Turn Ignorance Around.”

Pic via

Social Media Marketing Is Fast and Unbound; Control Freaks Watch Out

If @Apple’s brand team applied itself in social media channels, its flock of fanboys and fangirls would be all over it. Whether Apple needs social media to create or sustain interest is questionable, which may explain why the company that works in a new spaceship-like building barely deigns to dabble in the medium. Tim Nudd […]

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VML Wins AOR Duties for Your Favorite Mid-’90s Mall Chain, Express

Get ready to flash back to your mallrat heyday: retailer Express has chosen VML as its new agency of record after a review.

We personally hadn’t thought of Express in at least 15 years, but the chain, which specializes in “targeting the 20 to 30-year old customer,” ended its recent review by picking the Kansas City-base WPP network.

Now that agency will handle “marketing, paid media, search, analytics and consumer sales optimization” while the chain’s in-house team continues with creative.

You may have forgotten Express like we did, but the company has been around for 35 years and survived the spinoff and re-absorption of its men’s-only sister chain Structure. It still maintains a design studio in Manhattan and employs about 18,000 people in more than 600 locations across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, but not Canada: in May Express announced that it would close all operations north of the border in a move equivalent to American bankruptcy.

Stock prices have also dropped quite a bit over the past year-plus as Express continues running headlong into the same problems faced by every other brick-and-mortar retail organization. The exact size of the account is unclear.

The brand’s campaigns usually include celebrity/influencer stuff and iPhone-style videos like this one, wherein some guys play big band music in New Orleans while wearing jeans with suits and ties.

Serta Launches First Creative Review in 17 Years, with Incumbent Doner Sitting Out

Mattress-maker Serta has issued an RFP seeking a new creative agency of record, and longtime incumbent Doner will not be defending its account. Two sources close to the agency confirmed that the review has begun and that Doner (whose Detroit office handles the business) had declined to participate.

An MDC Partners representative deferred to the client for comment today. We have yet to hear back from Serta.

Serta named Doner as its creative agency of record back in December of 1999 and subsequently introduced the animated sheep that have come to define the brand. In 2015, the agency played off the sheep concept with a campaign claiming the Serta Perfect Sleeper is “so comfortable you’ll never count sheep again.”

The specific reasons for the review are unclear at this time, but several big changes have come to the business during its partnership with Doner. In 2009, Serta’s parent company acquired Simmons to form the world’s largest mattress company, and three years later a private equity firm called Advent International acquired a majority interest in what was then called Serta Simmons.

The brand’s ad spend declined in recent years. The account’s value was estimated at $20 million when Doner first won, but U.S. measured media totals dropped to $15 million last year. That’s down from $18 million in 2015, according to Kantar Media.

Interestingly, the company spent more than $35 million on paid ads in the first quarter of 2017 alone. Kantar’s estimates attribute most of this dramatically larger spend to print placements in U.S. magazines and newspapers.

Doner Detroit laid off approximately 3 percent of its total staff this month. It’s unclear how much of that was related to the loss of the Serta business and how much was tied to Minute Maid, which went to Anomaly.

Post Holdings Names Public Works as Agency of Record for Honey Bunches of Oats

Post Holdings selected Minneapolis agency Public Works as agency of record for its cereal brand Honey Bunches of Oats.

“Am I missing something? I guess I don’t get the whole ocean metaphor, Public Works creative lead Derek Bitter said in a statement contained in a press release entitled “Public Works pulls a cereal whale out of Breakfast Bay.”

“I mean, can’t we just say that we’re incredibly excited to be working with a great brand like Honey Bunches of Oats? Not everything has to be a big silly thing all the time.”

“Yeah, why are we on a ship? Can you just add that we are honored that Post Consumer Brands continues to find trust in us to partner with them on their biggest brands,” added business lead Jenny McDowell.

Public Works already works with a number 0f Post brands, including Pebbles, Honeycomb, Malt-O-Meal and Great Grains, but Honey Bunches of Oats represents the largest assignment from the client. The agency, which launched last year and employs around 13, also works with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild and Warner Bros.

‘Assassin’s Creed’ Publisher Ubisoft Picks Shoptology as Shopper Marketing AOR

In news that involves two of our favorite topics—gaming and shopper marketing—Ubisoft has picked Texas’ Shoptology as its shopper agency of record after a competitive review.

The French game developer, responsible for series like Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry, chose the Project Worldwide shop to work on unspecified projects related to its slate of 2018 titles.

“Shoptology’s strategic approach, creativity, and retail knowledge will make the agency a valued addition to the team,” said the client’s associate director of shopper marketing and insights Linda Murphy, adding, “We aim to deliver original and memorable gaming experiences across all popular platforms and Shoptology will help us get our rich portfolio of world-renowned brands into consumers’ hands through ideal retail experiences.”

Agency CEO Charlie Anderson (pictured) noted that his company’s capabilities are “based around where shopping is headed” but didn’t elaborate. Group account director Ryan Karlstrom will manage the business.

This is the latest in a series of reviews for Ubisoft, which most recently picked UM to handle its media work in the U.S. According to Kantar, the company spent $10 million on domestic paid media during the first quarter of 2017, though it’s not clear how much of that total will be dedicated to shopper-side efforts.

On the creative side, Ubisoft works with a wide variety of shops to promote its titles. A simple search of this here web log reveals recent campaigns by 360i, Omelet and Mistress, and a January spot by DDB Paris for Ghost Recon: Wildlands marked the return of Die Hard director John McTiernan.