Hasta La Creative!

Web hosting company GoDaddy, which Kantar Media claims spends around $24.7 million on measured media in the U.S., has launched a review in search of a global brand agency partner. It is unclear if incumbent Barton F. Graf 9000 will participate in the review and Phil Bienert, GoDaddy’s chief marketing officer, told AdAge, “We are still finalizing the list.”

The review comes roughly four months after GoDaddy decided to pull a controversial Super Bowl spot following online backlash. While some questioned whether the stunt was planned, the company insisted the response was completely unexpected. GoDaddy, of course, built its brand on outlandish Super Bowl ads, which were universally loathed enough to merit a “Dear GoDaddy, Please Stop” op-ed from Woods Witt Dealy & Sons partner/creative director Harry Woods in 2013. Last month, GoDaddy chose not to renew its sponsorship of Danica Patrick, who starred in many of the company’s Super Bowl spots, another sign that the GoDaddy is changing its marketing approach. Barton F. Graf 9000’s most recent ads for the brand featured Jon Lovitz taking a CGI beating.

“We felt the time was right for us to be looking for a global agency partner to take our brand global,” Bienert told AdAge. “The criteria are that agencies have global scale, that they have a presence doing brand advertising in multiple markets — not just in North America but in Asia Pacific, Latin America and Europe – and that they understand our brand and our mission.” He added, “We’re ready to push beyond simple brand campaigns that revolve around a 30-second TV commercial and leverage our distinctive small-business data platform as a key ingredient in our brand marketing.”

Will Zoku spell the end of the hotel room as we know it?

It’s way too early to tell, but that’s the bold proclamation already made already by the parties behind the new loft chain, which, all hyperbole aside, serves as a compact home office/bedroom hybrid. Aimed at a sector of business travelers labeled “global nomads,” Zoku–which will officially open its first venue in Amsterdam in fall 2015–aims to transcend the standard hotel experience by unveiling what it deems “social spaces” within a hive-like environment that encourages work, play and longer stays.

How so? Well, the idealistic brand not only provides a loft-style sleeping space but an alcove desk with office supplies, a four-person table for dining and even retractable staircases–so in essence, a playroom for adults.

To help initiate Zoku’s Amsterdam launch, the brand collaborated with hometown agency We Are Pi to develop a brand identity, etc. The brief film above provides a glimpse into the loft, which was conceived following crowdsourcing and research efforts by London-based consultancy, The Future Laboratory. In a statement, Future Laboratory co-founder Chris Sanderson–whose firm worked with interior design/architectural firm Concrete to bring Zoku to life–coins a new term, saying:

“The merging of business and leisure – a trend we have identified as bleisure – represents one of the fastest growing and dynamic business opportunities in recent years. Today’s business travellers are re-writing the rules. Their outlook on work and play demands new services and a new approach to the hospitality sectors. The business hub will be the opportunity of the next decade in terms of hospitality value creation.”

Along with Amsterdam, Zoku plans to target more creatives throughout Europe by opening up operations in Paris, London and Berlin, with global expansion on the horizon.

Film credits:

WE ARE Pi

Managing Director: Alex Bennett Grant
Partner: Patrick Garvey
Strategy Director: Jessica Perri
Strategist: Andrea van den Bos
Executive Creative Director: Rick Chant
Executive Creative Director: Barney Hobson
Creative Design Director: Nessim Higson
Art Director: Kaz Salemink
Account Manager: Sam Speed
Account Executive: Hollie Beever
Executive producer: Kimia Farshidzad
Project Manager: Ambar Surastri

Film and Photography Production

Photographer: Bill Tanaka
1st Assist: Collin Hill
Art Director / Props: Meike Sier
Catering: Nanja Theus

Editor: Sanne van Hecke
Animation Production: Joe Flemming
VO artist: Jason Huggings, Intervoiceover
Music and sound design: Michael Kneebone, Toolbox

Procter & Gamble has launched a review of its North American media business, Adweek reports.

P&G is the largest advertiser in the U.S., spending an estimated $2.6 billion annually, according to Kantar Media. The account is currently split between Starcom’s MediaVest, which handles most of the business in the U.S. and Dentsu Aegis’s Carat, which handles media buying in Canada. It is unclear if either agency will participate in the review.

The move follows the decision last summer to divest or shed 90-100 of its brands and the appointment of Kristine Decker as brand director, North America brand operations in January. Late last month, P&G also announced its desire to “make deep cuts in the number of advertising agencies it works with, hoping to save up to half-a-billion dollars in fees.”

So our sources were right: Royal Caribbean did not choose the established player (Deutsch NY), the edgy alternative (Droga5) or the smaller upstart (22squared) in its extended creative review.

The client instead concluded that review today by choosing Mullen, now known as Mullen Lowe, as its lead creative agency to succeed JWT.

A source tells our colleague Andrew McMains of Adweek that the client’s final review–of its media agencies–is now down to three:  Media Storm, Mediahub and defending incumbent Mindshare.

The recent Mullen/Lowe merger raises a couple of questions. First, will the client favor Mullen’s media arm Mediahub for its buying business? Second, who will run creative on the account?

(Given the fact that Campbell Ewald will “return to its roots as an independent agency within the IPG and Mullen Lowe Group portfolios,” that shop will clearly not work on Royal Caribbean. But will current Lowe employees who were not also Mullen employees work on it?)

Expect hiring announcements to come…and expect them to be complicated by the many moving parts of the newly formed Mullen Lowe Group.

FCB has picked up more A-B InBev business, following its winning creative duties on Michelob Ultra in January, with the Ritas brands and MixxTail assignments going to FCB Chicago. Referring to them as “projects,” executives told AdAge that FCB Chicago will handle advertising for the brands through 2016. The assignments come as welcome news for the agency, which lost the KFC account to W+K back in February.

BBDO had previously handled the Ritas brands, as well as Bud Light Lime, for which FCB will handle its summer campaign. Bud Light will remain with BBDO. MixxTail is a new Bud Light extension of “ready to drink cocktails,” which Vayner Media created the debut broadcast spot for. AdAge’s sources claim that FCB will handle all aspects of the MixxTail brand going forward. FCB Chicago’s new work for the Ritas and MixxTail is expected to debut by the fall.

Hershey’s has added three agencies to its roster following a creative review: Anomaly New York; Barkley in Kansas City; and Argonaut in San Francisco.

The creative review was launched in January, with incumbents Arnold Worldwide and Havas Worldwide not taking part, as they will remain on the client’s agency roster. “Arnold/Havas work is continuing and this is not a replacement, it’s just an addition,” spokeswoman Anna Lingeris told AdAge.

Hershey’s new agencies will be overseeing new strategic project work, although it is unclear exactly what that will entail as Hershey’s “declined to describe the specific brand assignments for its new agencies” to AdAge.

That publication pointed out Hershey’s new additions to its brand portfolio in new product Hershey’s Caramels and the acquisition of jerky maker Krave Pure Foods and it’s possible the new agencies will be used for work on these new additions. Hershey’s spent $726 million on measured media in 2014, according to Kantar Media, and increased its marketing expenses by about 8 percent in the first quarter of this year.

CEC Entertainment brand Chuck E. Cheese’s has launched a creative review, Adweek reports. The brand spent approximately $28 million on measured media in 2014, according to Kantar Media.

The Richards Group won creative and media duties for the brand back in 2012. It is unclear if the agency will be defending in the creative review, and the brand’s chief marketing officer, Michael Hartmann, declined to comment to Adweek. Hartmann took over in the role in January, after a stint as senior marketing officer at SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, and his arrival was likely an impetus for the review. CEC Entertainment, which owns the brand, was also purchased last year by Apollo Global Management. The arcade and family dining chain has an estimated 577 locations, mostly in the U.S. and Canada.

Diet Coke has dropped agency BETC London and is working with Dawson Pickering — the agency created by former BETC London executive creative director Neil Dawson and head of copy Clive Pickering last year — on a project believed to be related to last year’s “Regret Nothing” campaign, Brand Republic reports.

BETC London had worked on the account since 2012, when it beat out Publicis in a review. “BETC London is proud of all the work we have done with the team over at Coca-Cola,” Andrew Stirk, chief executive at BETC London, told the publications, adding, “We wish the team and the brand the very best for the future, and are excited about the upcoming opportunities for BETC London.”

The news follows the agency losing its share of the Bacardi business, following a global consolidation that left the company’s brands with BBDO and OMD. It also comes as Coca-Cola courts its roster shops to select the direction of its new campaign.

Bacardi has decided to consolidate creative and media for its major brands, choosing BBDO and OMD without a review, Adweek reported yesterday.

According to that publication, the process began with a secret meeting between Bacardi mangement, led by CEO Mike Dolan, and executives at BBDO and OMD. Within a couple of weeks the brand had struck a deal with the two agencies to consolidate its major brands, handing off both creative and media responsibilties to the pair of Omnicom shops. Prior to the consolidation, Bacardi worked with a wide variety of agencies on its creative accounts, with media handled by Mindshare in North America and Zenith in Europe.

“Our goal is to be able to work better and to create a closer alignment between our global and local operations,” Dolan said in a statement. “To achieve this goal requires that we work with a global network.”

“It was so unique in how this happened,” OMD worldwide CEO Mainardo de Nardis told Adweek. “It wasn’t about a review, pitches, presentations, spreadsheets, pricing. We feel empowered because this is a decision based on strategic discussions about how to improve Bacardi’s business. It’s a real partnership with a huge amount of trust. If only [all new business] could be like this.”

Among Bacardi’s 200 brands are flagship brand Bacardi, Grey Goose, Martini, Bombay Sapphire, Dewars and William Lawson’s. Due to a conflict of interest, BBDO will resign from Belvedere Vodka in the U.S. and Famous Grouse in the U.K.

Fast casual “better burger” chain Smashbuger has appointed Minneapolis-based creative agency as its creative agency of record, following a review.

According to an anonymous source, other finalists in the review (which originally consisted of twelve agencies) included independent agencies Grenadier in Boulder, Creature in Seattle and RTO+P in Philadelphia. Smashburger launched the review in search of an agency “to put greater emphasis on its brand story” and ultimately chose mono “for their all-in approach that combined strategic insights with their ability to translate those insights into outstanding creative.”

“We are always pushing ourselves and our agencies to deliver world-class creative with appeal that engages our customers and drives business growth,” Josh Kern, chief marketing officer at Smashburger said in a statement. “The team at mono clearly demonstrated a passion for the Smashburger brand as well as the ability to help us tell the story of the brand as the new way to eat a burger.”

A new national campaign from mono will roll out over the next several months, with print, radio, out-of-home and experiential expected to launch by the end of the month. Smashburger currently has over 310 locations in 34 states and seven international countries.