Hasta La Creative!

Nashville-based Captain D’s, “the nation’s leading fast casual seafood restaurant,” appointed WPP’s The&Partnership as its agency of record, following a review managed by Los Angeles-based Select Resources International.

The&Partnership will be tasked with leading all aspects of brand marketing, creating national integrated campaigns composed of broadcast, digital, social media and shared mail. Empower MediaMarketing remains Captain D’s media buying agency of record. 

“The team at The&Partnership impressed us with their unique ideas, strategic thinking and veteran restaurant experience that will bring excitement to our marketing efforts,” Captain D’s chief marketing officer Bob Kraut said in a statement. “We’re excited for this new partnership and look forward to taking the Captain D’s brand to the next level.”

“It became clear during the pitch that Captain D’s and The&Partnership share the same energetic entrepreneurial spirit,” added The&Partnership partner and CEO Andrew Bailey. “We’re excited to tap into every one of our creative disciplines to help take this amazing brand to even greater heights. We created The&Partnership to help write this exact kind of modern marketing success story.”

The news follows The&Parntership being appointed as lead creative agency for the Whitney Museum of American Art this past October and Toyota’s lead agency in Europe the following month. Last July, The&Partnership welcomed Wil Boudreau as North American CCO. 

The U.S. unit of Honda parted ways with Publicis’ Mediavest Spark back in January, sending an account worth nearly $600 million to longtime creative partner RPA. That agency had previously handled media responsibilities before losing the account to Mediavest in a 2013 review.

Yesterday The Wall Street Journal reported that Honda made the decision after a breakdown in trust with its former media agency, caused by “alleged irregularities in how its account was handled.”

Sources familiar with the matter told the publication that Mediavest Spark failed to pay media companies within the expected time frame and that Honda discovered that “money that was meant to pay bonuses to certain agency staffers on the Honda account didn’t get to them.” Honda also felt it was overcharged due to the way Mediavest allocated resources on at least one occasion, again according to sources close to the matter. It’s unclear if any of these issues amounted to breaking the terms of the agency’s contract with Honda.

“Trust is the bedrock of our client-agency relationships,” a Publicis Media spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal. “Following discussions with our client, we immediately took steps to address their concerns. We are committed to full compliance with the terms of the client-agency agreements we sign, and we have strict internal rules designed to support that.”

Honda U.S. assistant vice president of marketing operations Tom Peyton told the publication that the media shift could be attributed to a desire to consolidate its account with its existing creative partner, to work with “people who will get into the whole world of programmatic and [data management platform] usage and really understand that and staff it accordingly,” as well as the “changing nature of the media world.”

The news comes, of course, as mistrust over ad buying and spending, particularly in the digital realm, has become a widespread issue. Last summer, the ANA issued a report last June which found “pervasive” use of rebates and kickbacks in the industry.

BSSP has resigned from the Mini account rather than go through another procurement-mandated review.

The agency initially won U.S. agency of record duties back in 2005 and later negotiated to extend a very unusual policy that required the brand to launch a new review every four years to six years. This approach originated within the procurement department of the brand’s parent company BMW in Germany.

In the 11 1/2 years then, BSSP has survived three rounds of CMO revolving door, two new heads of the Mini division and a 2012 global creative review to retain the business. During that period it created work like the 2016 Super Bowl ad “Defy Labels” and a series of billboards that knew everyone’s name.

But the client later shifted the media portion of its business to UM and began making more “aggressive cost-cutting” moves like centralizing the core brand creative with its own teams in Munich. As BSSP’s relationship with Mini became more project-based, the benefits of participating in another review that will involve less brand work and more social media/CRM became less and less clear.

CCO John Butler called this “a difficult decision” in the press release, and today CEO Greg Stern told us he’d never heard of mandated reviews before working with Mini, adding, “If the agency-client relationship is working, you maintain it.”

At the same time, the business has undoubtedly benefited BSSP in many ways, helping the agency score new accounts and attract talent. Recent wins include PowerBar and Nature Made.

ConAgra has consolidated its North American marketing with DDB Chicago, moving the entirety of the account from DDB San Francisco without a review.

The client, which moved its headquarters from Omaha to Chicago last year, was reportedly impressed with the We Are Unlimited model that a DDB-led team used to win McDonald’s back in August.

“DDB North America has outlined a future-forward agency model powered by DDB Chicago, partnering with Annalect and Sparks & Honey, designed to move our business forward,” ConAgra Brands chief growth officer Darren Serrao said in a statement. “The time is right to recalibrate our agency/client partnership so that we can work more fluidly and effectively. DDB Chicago’s close proximity is also a plus for us.”

“We quickly assembled a team using the blueprint around the thinking we did for McDonald’s,” DDB North America CEO Wendy Clark told Adweek. “In a matter of weeks, we put together something that looks revolutionary to the business. This is not a lift and shift, but a blueprint we can follow.”

Clark visited San Francisco to deliver the news in person this week, and the press release states that it will “impact” 10-20 employees in that office without elaborating. Clark said that DDB S.F. will focus more on Silicon Valley clients moving forward, and as an example she cited an upcoming campaign for client The Pacific Gas and Electric Company that will promote green energy initiatives in California.

DDB San Francisco has handled ConAgra’s major brands since a consolidation in 2013 and began working on ConAgra’s Banquet brand in 2004.

ConAgra counts Slim Jim, Hebrew National, Healthy Choice, Chef Boyardee, Orville Redenbacher’s, Jiffy Pop, Hunt’s, PAM, Peter Pan and Wesson among its roster. Kantar Media puts its annual spend across the portfolio at around $125 million.

The Chicago office has already begun working on an unspecified brief.

72andSunny has won lead global creative agency status on eBay after a competitive review.

The move comes as part of a larger review process that saw the ecommerce giant pick VCCP as its lead agency for Europe earlier this month.

From VP of global brand Karl Isaac:

“Our partnership with 72andSunny is about more than creating a campaign. Together, we’ll bring our core brand belief of helping everyone get their version of perfect, to life in a fresh, modern way that authentically connects with people and culture. We’re thrilled about the great work we’ll create together to evolve the eBay brand.”

It’s the first such review in the U.S. since 2014, when the client picked Goodby Silverstein & Partners and MediaCom to handle creative and media buying/planning. Goodby, which had worked with the company from 2001-2005 and later in 2009, subsequently created eBay’s first-ever global campaign under the tagline “Shop the World.”

GS&P, however, was not officially agency of record. And in subsequent years eBay, which had previously worked with Venables Bell & Partners and other creative shops on its campaigns, switched off and went with Pereira & O’Dell for last year’s holiday campaign.

The client’s quote above indicates that this will be a different sort of relationship, though a spokesperson later wrote, “eBay is always exploring ways to introduce new talent and creative approach into our marketing mix. This includes evaluating and working with different agency partners around the world, including P&O and VCCP, to support our many business priorities.”

72andSunny founder, co-chairman John Boiler said:

“We love to partner with ambitious brands who want to make exciting work that impacts culture. From our first meeting, we knew the team at eBay were people we wanted to work with, and eBay is a brand with values and a vision that’s so in line with ours and will connect with culture today.”

We do not currently know which agencies were involved in the review, when 72’s first work will debut or how it will differ from past campaigns.

According to Kantar Media, the client spent around $89 million on measured media in the U.S. in 2015 and just over $100 million last year. Global numbers are not available at this time, but those totals are significantly higher than the ones given during the last review.

Today the International Olympic Committee announced that Publicis Groupe will be its agency partner in promoting the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

According to the release, the U.K. and New York offices of Publicis (the creative agency, not the holding company) will lead the effort along with digital/creative/analytics unit POKE.

The three will develop broadcast spots, digital activations and “integrated Olympic Channel content to promote the Olympic Movement and the Olympic Values” in the lead-up to next February’s games.

In the release, IOC vp of marketing strategy and activation Melinda May said, “We’re delighted to be working with Publicis and Poke in delivering such an important campaign. We were impressed by the collaboration and dedication shown, and the deep interest and understanding of the IOC’s mission. We felt they were the best agencies to develop our campaign.”

“We’re thrilled to be working with the IOC, it’s a great privilege,” said Publicis London and POKE CEO Nick Farnhill, adding, “a global participation idea for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games is one of the most exciting projects we could be involved with.”

The size of this remit is currently unclear.

You may recall that WPP brand agency VML handled creative for the 2016 Summer Games with a little help from everyone’s favorite Dad Rock star Lenny Kravitz and director/’90s music video veteran Max Malkin.

Three months ago, the Canadian Olympic Committee named Sid Lee as its agency partner to promote Canadian athletics in the games and beyond.

Detergent brand All selected DDB as its agency of record, following a review launched in December.

Going forward, DDB will lead advertising initiatives for the full range of All products. Incumbent Merkley+Partners, who took over creative duties for BBH following a review in 2009, will still handle digital AOR duties for the brand.

“We are excited to welcome DDB to our family of agencies,” All vice president of marketing Bridgette Miller told Adweek. “DDB brings great energy, experience and creative insight as we continue to bring our brand positioning to life and focus on households with kids.”

Ownership of All’s parent corporation, Sun Products, has bounced around in recent years. Sun Products was sold to Vestar Capital Partners for around $1.08 billion and then again to Germany’s Henkel AG last year, for approximately $3.6 billion.

According to Kantar Media, All spent around $43 million on measured media in the first 10 months of 2016.

Merkley+Partners work for the client included a 2015 campaign tied to the release of The Peanuts Movie. A spokesperson for that agency did not respond to an email regarding the review.

On a network-wide level, this win makes up—in part—for DDB San Francisco’s loss of Clorox last year. But Clorox spends about five times as much on marketing each year as All.

Sprint continued the gradual in-house consolidation of its marketing work by ending a five-plus year relationship with DigitasLBi Chicago. Yellow Fan Studios will handle all work previously with Digitas as of April 1.

The Publicis agency had been working with Sprint since late 2011, when it won a review to handle digital creative, brand strategy, digital buying/analytics and “offline advertising.” (The business had previously been with GS&P.)

As we hear it, Sprint gradually moved those responsibilities away from DigitasLBi. Social went first, followed by digital creative and digital media. The final portion of the business was direct/email marketing, which accounted for more than $10 million in annual revenue.

DigitasLBi also hired new executives to manage the business including former Wunderman SVP Donna Biernadski (now with Northwestern University) and Energy BBDO EVP Davin Power, who replaced current UNLIMITED CEO Brian Nienhaus before becoming president at gravity labs last fall.

This move, of course, is in keeping with the telecom giant’s ongoing attempts to reduce its overall marketing spend by launching Yellow House and assigning more work to that team. It started with production, and Sprint eventually dropped Deutsch entirely and sent its creative business to Droga5 without a review. According to at least one source, the agency was not aware of what its client was doing at any given time toward the end of that relationship.

Today Sprint confirmed that its relationship with DigitasLBi will end next month but declined to commen or elaborate. An agency spokesperson also confirmed the story and told us that the shift would not have a direct effect on head count at its Chicago office.

According to our primary source, DigitasLBi CEO Tony Weisman planned to meet with Sprint’s chief marketing officer Marcelo Claure at this year’s CES in Las Vegas two months ago, but Claure didn’t show up.

Around the same time, Claure began publicly discussing a potential merger with T-Mobile as Sprint launched its first media agency review in a decade (the company looks to spend around $600 million on paid media this year).

Last week, a New York Times report added fuel to that fire by noting that Japanese investor Masayoshi Son is “betting on Trump” and that he and his team at SoftBank, which owns Sprint, are “weighing several major possible deals for … the struggling American wireless operator.”

R/GA has won the PwC agency review.

The agency beat out incumbent Deutsch, Huge and other unnamed agencies to win what we’ve learned is a per-project assignment for the international tax/audit/consulting firm.

We first broke news of the review one month ago, and The New York Times noted the R/GA win with a sentence buried deep in a piece about the client’s Oscars problems last week. (PwC has been handing the Academy Awards vote tally process for more than 80 years, and one of its accountants was responsible for the Best Picture confusion on Oscars night.)

Both Deutsch and R/GA declined to comment on the news. The client simply confirmed that R/GA had won the review and that, given its current agency roster, it does not plan to name an AOR at any time in the near future.

Here’s what U.S. marketing lead John Sviokla had to say during the review itself:

“As we continue to strengthen the PwC brand, we are reviewing media agencies to assist in the execution of an advertising campaign. Our in-house team will be intimately involved in the creative direction of the campaign and will remain focused on helping PwC’s clients drive digital transformations.”

We hear that the scope of the work sent to R/GA is somewhat limited and that it will promote services such as global consultancy Strategy& and perhaps even Digital Services, PwC’s in-house marketing organization. Deutsch advertised the former with the “Extraordinary Challenges” campaign in 2015.

The IPG agency recently won the social media portion of Samsung’s marketing business away from Big Spaceship and expanded its L.A. team with several executive-level hires in creative, strategy and production.

About six weeks ago, Campaign reported that Beats Electronics (no longer By Dre) had been talking to UK agencies regarding its media business.

We recently learned from a party with specific knowledge of the matter that those talks preceded a full global media agency review for the Apple-owned audio company.

This news is in keeping with the company’s plans to expand its business around the world and focus more resources on markets outside the U.S.

Despite its growing name recognition, Beats’ marketing spend remains small. According to Kantar Media, the company spent $40 million on measured media in North America for 2015 and about half that during the first 10 months of 2016. Its global totals, however, are unavailable at this time.

According to our source, the competitors in this review were IPG’s UM, Publicis’ Starcom and WPP’s GroupM, which has been working on the business in the EMEA via its Maxus division. We hear that UM recently exited the process.

Representatives from UM, GroupM and Omnicom declined to comment on the review, though we have confirmed that the latter holding company is not involved in the pitch. Starcom and Apple have not yet responded to related queries.

On the creative side, R/GA had been Beats’ sole creative partner before last year’s U.S. review, which saw the business go to Anomaly. The MDC Partners agency subsequently opened a new L.A. office, hired 25 staffers and launched a couple of celebrity-heavy campaigns late last year right after company CMO Omar Johnson announced his pending departure in Fast Company. The company has not yet named his successor.

According to Campaign, most of the R/GA Beats work has since moved from Hustle in Los Angeles to the London office.