Hasta La Creative!

Brooklyn-based design and furniture retailer West Elm, Williams-Sonoma’s fastest growing brand, has selected Droga5 as its creative agency as it prepares to make its first leap into the world of advertising. Until now, the brand’s marketing has been largely limited to social media and content marketing.

The business will be run out of New York, as West Elm focuses on expanding and raising its profile globally, Jonny Bauer, global chief strategy officer at Droga5, told Campaign. “West Elm wants to change the way that people perceive what design is and what it should be able to do,” he said, adding that the agency’s first work for the brand, expected to roll out this autumn, would be a “non-traditional” integrated campaign with a focus on social media.

Vanessa Holden, senior vice president, creative director at West Elm, explained to Campaign that the brand’s marketing message would focus on the brand’s socially responsible business practices. “We think about the financial and social impact of every dollar we spend. And we want our customers to do the same with every purchase they make,” she said.

DiMassimo Goldstein, an independent, New York-based agency, has been selected by Weight Watchers to handle the brand’s spring campaign, which will debut Sunday, AdAge reports.

Weight Watchers decided to leave W+K last month after less than a year with the agency, in a move many attribute to an attempt to save money on the part of the struggling company. W+K took over for McCann Erickson New York in April of 2014, at which time Weight Watchers proceeded to drop its celebrity spokespeople.

A Weight Watchers spokesperson stated that this is not an agency of record selection and that the brand will “continue to evaluate agencies for the longer term.” AdAge notes that DiMassimo Goldstein “has experience crafting ads for subscription-model businesses, ranging from Netflix and eBay to Reader’s Digest and FreshDirect.” We featured the agency’s work on the FreshDirect broadcast spot “Lonely Shopping Cart” last year.

As you may remember, W+K’s last work for the client was its “All You Can Eat” Super Bowl ad featuring voiceover work from Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul.

Norwegian Cruise Line has launched a review of its creative and media accounts, Adweek reports. Incumbent The Martin Agency, who have handled the account since 2011, declined to participate in the review, which spans traditional and digital media. The brand spent around $33 million on measured media last year, according to Kantar Media, a drop in spending of $12 million from 2013’s total.

The news follows competing cruise line Royal Caribbean’s review announcement in February. It also follows Andy Stuart being named president and chief operating officer last month, following Drew Madsen‘s resignation.

According to Adweek’s sources, Norwegian Cruise Line’s request for proposals is due back this week. The review, which is being conducted without a consultant, is expected to conclude by the end of May. A representative of the cruise line said in a statement, “While The Martin Agency has chosen not to participate in the review process, Norwegian thanks the company for their many contributions and looks ahead to beginning the search for a new agency partner.”

Following a “multiple month review,” GNC has replaced incumbent agency Carmichael Lynch with three agencies, Adweek reports. Going forward, Brooklyn agency Consigliere will act as lead creative agency, with Atlanta based 22squared handling digital duties and Crossmedia handling media buying and planning.

Carmichael Lynch took over as agency of record in January of 2014, following a review in which former-CEO Joe Fortunato said the Pittsburgh company was “looking for a one-stop-shop that could cover all of our marketing needs.” At the time, the Minneapolis-based agency took over for creative agency Arnell and Cramer-Krasselt, who handled media responsibilities. Now, under new executive leadership, the company has clearly rethought their strategy. It is unclear if Carmichael Lynch participated in the review, as contenders were not disclosed. According to Nielsen, GNC spends approximately $30 million annually on measured media.

AdAge reports that General Mills has appointed W+K Portland as agency of record for its Yoplait brand.

Incumbent Saatchi & Saatchi will continue to handle portions of the business including innovation and kids variety Go-Gurt, but W+K will play lead moving forward.

For W+K, the account, along with the addition of KFC to its roster last month, makes up for ground lost in Kraft’s agency consolidation in November and the recent departure of Weight Watchers.

The agency move — like so many others — comes shortly after General Mills’ appointment of Ann Simonds as chief marketing officer. According to Kantar Media, the company spent $169.4 million on U.S. measured media for the Yoplait brand last year.

CarMax has handed media duties over to Horizon following a competitive review, sources told Adweek.

The review for the assignment, previously handled in-house, also included finalists OMD and Vizeum. It follows the selection of new CMO Jim Lyski last August, and a competitive review which handed creative duties to McKinney in November. According to Kantar Media, CarMax spends around $70 million on media annually.

Back in November 2014, sources told us that Snyder’s/Lance, maker of various salty snacks, had begun speaking to new agencies as it planned to leave then-AOR BFG Communications.

While BFG offered no comment at the time (they don’t seem to like responding to emails), we now know that the rumors were true.

Barton F. Graf 9000 won creative duties on four Snyder’s-Lance brands, — Cape Cod potato chips, Snyder’s of Hanover pretzels, Pretzel Crisps and Lance crackers — Adweek reported yesterday.

Barton F. Graf 9000 beat out finalists Taxi, The Burns Group and GKV to win the assignment, which combined account for around $15 million in measured media annually. The assignment follows Snyder’s-Lance switching social media and PR agencies to Tenthwave and Luquire George Andrews, respectively.

Additionally, Snyder’s-Lance is currently searching for a new media agency to replace GKV (who were also the incumbent agency on Snyder’s, Cape Cod and Lance). The media review is expected to conclude some time in March. New work from Barton F. Graf 9000 for the Snyder’s-Lance brands is expected to debut in the third quarter of 2015.

Vodafone has selected Grey London as its lead creative agency following a pitch against incumbent Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R, who had worked as the brand’s lead agency since August of 2011, Campaign reports.

Grey has worked with Vodafone since 2011, when it was tasked with handling the business in Ireland. According to Nielsen, Vodafone spent around £52.9 million on measured media in 2013. We’ve provided a sample of RKCR/Y&R’s work for the brand, in the form of an ad from this past summer in which it cast real British families, above.

The pitch followed Vodafone hiring Grey London for a network differentiation campaign last March, which encompassed broadcast, cinema, print and digital. Grey London’s first campaign for the brand is expected in April.

“We have been aiming to bring our focus our consumer brand work into fewer agencies for some time, as this allows us to foster a closer working relationship with them and also ensures greater consistency across all channels,” said Daryl Fielding, director of brand marketing at Vodafone UK.

Papa John’s has selected Initiative as its new media agency, taking over for Zimmerman Advertising without a review. In addition to media buying and planning, the agency will also be tasked handling digital and social media efforts, Adweek reports. Papa John’s spends approximately $130 million annually on measured media.

Bob Kraut, who was named Papa John’s chief marketing officer in late 2013, worked with Initiative previously while serving as senior vice president of brand marketing and advertising at Arby’s Restaurant Group. The move follows the selection of Grey as the brand’s creative agency of record in early 2014, shortly following Kraut’s arrival. Zimmerman had previously held creative duties for the brand as well, but declined to defend in the review that led to Grey’s selection.

“This was an internal decision as part of Papa John’s ongoing effort to be a more global company and improve efficiencies,” the Louisville-based brand said in a statement. “We feel like Initiative is the right partner as we continue to move in this direction.”

Today in news we missed because of all the Super Bowl nonsense, FCB apparently lost the KFC creative account to Wieden+Kennedy after more than ten years — a period during which the agency produced a wide variety of work for the client.

A source who didn’t speak to us told Maureen Morrison of AdAge that the two agencies faced off in a closed pitch from which Wieden emerged victorious.

No one involved would confirm the story, but one year ago KFC’s parent company hired a new CMO — a move that often portends doom for a client’s agency of record. Coincidentally, that very CMO spent many years at Procter & Gamble and served as the North American marketing director for Old Spice when W+K launched “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.”

The internal memo from CCO Todd Tilford and Chicago President Michael Fassnacht reads as both disappointed and puzzled:

“We have done incredibly strong work for KFC over the last 10 years, especially over the last 24 months…In 2014, KFC was the most social [quick-service restaurant] brand in North America, was ranked as the second most engaging QSR brand by Forbes in November 2014, and enjoyed very strong sales results over the last nine months that outshine the rest of the QSR category. We expect this trend to continue in 2015 while our new work runs nationwide.”

The news marks Wieden+Kennedy’s biggest win since Verizon less than three weeks ago.

In other KFC news, McCann Erickson continues to serve as the brand’s AOR in Romania, where “Rich Kids of Instagram” remains a topic of considerable interest among young people. To promote the client’s new Smart (read: cheap) Menu, the agency challenged Romanian teens and others to “recreate” the most popular shots to appear under that hashtag…minus all the money and expensive crap it buys.

Here are a couple of selections from the resulting tumblr page with a hashtag that translates to “little money, big fun”:

The kids are clever, but without formal training they probably won’t get hired by W+K.