Hasta La Creative!

The latest chapter in the Royal Caribbean organization’s ongoing review of all its agency relationships involves Celebrity Cruises, one of the six separate travel brands owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd.

Over the weekend, a spokesperson for Celebrity confirmed that the brand is “currently conducting a closed search for a creative agency of record” after going without an AOR for several years.

The more familiar Royal Caribbean brand announced its global creative review back in February, just under a year after longtime RC International chief Adam Goldstein was promoted to the president/COO role at the parent organization.

After Goldstein moved up, he named Michael Bayley–the long-serving CEO of Celebrity, which was first acquired by Royal Caribbean in 1997–to his former role as chief executive at Royal Caribbean International as Lisa Lutoff-Perlo stepped up to run the Celebrity organization. Goldstein also facilitated the departure of SVP of Marketing Carol Shuster, who previously spent several years with the Ogilvy organization; her replacement has yet to be named.

Celebrity launched an agency review in 2002 and awarded its business to Arnold Worldwide, which was also AOR for Royal Caribbean. The agency proceeded to create several TV campaigns under then-GCD and Managing Partner Pete Favat, now CCO at Deutsch L.A. (Digitas handled various marketing initiatives for the client at the time). Arnold eventually lost both accounts when Royal Caribbean launched concurrent reviews in 2006, awarding its main business to JWT and handing Celebrity to Omnicom’s Element79.

The client then decided to take its marketing efforts in-house–but this setup changed slightly in 2010 when Celebrity called on creative agencies to submit “ideas” at $50,000 a pop. Droga5 was rumored to be the “last shop standing” in the project-based partner pitch, but the agency’s name did not appear on any major subsequent work for the client.

Celebrity launched “Remember Everything,” its first notable ad campaign in several years, in April 2014; that work came to you courtesy of Celebrity’s “in-house creative leadership team.” The company plans to expand its fleet in the coming years in order to solidify its status as RC’s upscale line; in late 2014 the company ordered two new ships to “build upon the modern luxury experience,” and it recently announced a three-tiered pricing structure.

Most prominently, today Celebrity named Kate McCue captain of its “Celebrity Summit”; she is the first American woman to run “a mega-ton cruise ship.”

Regarding the organization’s other reviews, TBWA London eventually won U.K. duties for Royal Caribbean, with the newly-christened Mullen Lowe beating Deutsch N.Y., Droga5 and 22squared to win the North American business in May. Finally, Mediahub picked up the media account in June.

Celebrity Cruises has not provided any information regarding the agencies participating in the review at this time. According to Kantar Media, the larger Royal Caribbean organization spent $20 million marketing the brand in 2009, the last year for which we have these numbers.

This is the company’s most recent “brand essence” video in case you needed a refresher:

New York’s largest healthcare system North Shore-LIJ–which in recent years has worked with small agencies including Gatesman + Dave and Devito/Verdi–selected J. Walter Thompson New York as its lead creative agency.

The agency will be tasked with leading North Shore-LIJ’s branding and advertising strategy for all of its enterprises, including 19 hospitals, over 400 outpatient physician practices, medical research and education enterprises, effective immediately. JWT will work on developing a brand campaign aimed at “bringing to life the health system’s leadership position in the healthcare industry,” according to a press release. The news comes on the heels of the agency winning creative duties for Kellogg brand Special K at the end of last week.

“J. Walter Thompson will be a critical strategic and creative partner in helping to enhance our brand and reputation for offering best-in-class healthcare in both the New York metropolitan area and beyond,” said North Shore-LIJ senior vice president and chief marketing and communications officer Ramon Soto.

“North Shore-LIJ is in a unique position to be a partner to patients and consumers throughout their entire lives,” added Lynn Power, president, J. Walter Thompson New York. “We’re thrilled to work with a dynamic, rapidly expanding company that is reaching new heights in the delivery of healthcare.  It will be a privilege to partner with their incredible team.”

Kellogg is handing over U.S. creative duties for its Special K brand from Leo Burnett to JWT, AdAge reports. Pointing to an internal memo obtained by the publication, it reports that Leo Burnett will retain creative duties in Europe and Canada. JWT, meanwhile, will handle creative duties in Latin America. Leo Burnett has served as Kellogg’s lead agency for around 65 years, and will continue in that role, including working on breakfast brands like toaster pastry staple brand Pop-Tarts and cereal brand Frosted Flakes.

The loss is a sizable one for the agency, as Kellogg spent $120 million on measured media for the brand last year, according to Kantar Media. Leo Burnett’s most recent effort for the brand, “Eat Special. Feel Special.,” showed a change of approach from body positivity and presenting the cereal as diet-friendly to highlighting its nutritional benefits. But it would seem that Kellogg decided the change in direction merited a change in agency. Like many cereal brands, Special K has been struggling, with Euromonitor International reporting a 14.5% drop in sales from 2013 to 2014.

“We are incredibly proud of the contributions this agency has made to the success of Special K,” Rich Stoddart, CEO at Leo Burnett North America, stated in the internal memo obtained by AdAge. “In a little over a decade, we helped build the business from $412 million to almost $3 billion. I’m proud of the smart and strategic work the team developed to help the brand address its current business challenges. We put great work on the table, but in the end, Kellogg bought an idea from JWT that tested better.”

Remember Krispy Kreme? We always preferred their dough to that of Dunkin’, and we regret the fact that New York City’s only K.K. location happens to be in the middle of Penn Station, better known as The Worst Place on Earth.

Krispy began closing its stores around the country in 2009 before hiring a new CMO who (surprise surprise) promised to keep costs down by sticking with unpaid social media campaigns to satisfy its marketing needs.

Over the next four years, KK inspired plenty of headlines regarding a “comeback” before launching a digital creative review to accelerate that return to form (according to Technomic, the company “posted U.S. systemwide sales of $626 million, up an impressive 9.9%”).

The winner of the review was VML, which scored the business in early 2014; the client claimed that a dozen agencies participated. The rest of 2014 was a little uneven, with stock bumps followed by “disappointing sales growth” during the fourth quarter, and now Krispy Kreme has decided to take the next logical step by cutting all ties to its agencies and taking the whole thing in-house.

Sound familiar?

From the client:

“Krispy Kreme engaged VML last year to do strategic and foundational work in the areas of digital and social media.  We think that those efforts have set us up for success going forward. As such, we plan to manage digital and social media using in-house resources at this time. Thanks.”

Reads like KK hired VML in the interest of better positioning itself to break away, doesn’t it?

The brand recently expanded into the coffee market by launching cold beverages and partnering with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters on the K-cup front, but this passage from a March press release may hold the key to its future success:

“More than 70% of total Krispy Kreme locations are now outside of the U.S., and the company plans to increase international locations by 14% this year.”

Seems like the U.S. would be a great place to plan a stunt involving a box of 2,400 donuts, but we weren’t so lucky. *Insert your worst fat cops joke here.*

Mizkan Group, who acquired Ragú pasta sauces and Bertolli olive oil from Unilever last year for $2.1 billion as part of its consolidation of food brands, is now launching a creative review for the two brands, Adweek reports. The brands spent $32 million in measured media last year, according to Kantar Media, but that number could jump given the change in ownership.

In a statement, Mikzan Group said the brands were “beloved by consumers, and the R&B Foods team is excited to begin the journey of accelerating growth for these iconic brands.”

According to Adweek’s sources, the review is down to a handful of finalists, with Mizkan Group expected to choose one global agency for both brands. The review, which being managed by Joanne Davis Consulting in New York, is expected to conclude sometime this month.