Hasta La Creative!

Back in June, insurance giant Liberty Mutual launched a B2C creative review seeking to expand marketing efforts by way of “new concepts,” with Havas New York, an incumbent on the account since 2013, reportedly defending in the review.

The review in question does not concern the B2B portion of the business (which will reportedly remain with Havas) or commercial property and casualty insurance (which has been with Hill Holliday for more than a decade).

“At Liberty Mutual, we are always evaluating new and breakthrough ways to reach consumers in this highly competitive market,” a Liberty Mutual representative told Adweek at the time. “While we have been very happy with the success of our current ad campaign, in addition to that work we are also examining innovative, dynamic initiatives to further engage consumers”A natural extension of this includes exploring new concepts and adding potential new creative partners to our existing roster as we look to evolve our campaign.”

Multiple sources now tell us that the review is down to its final stage, with competitors pitching for the account in Boston today. According to said sources, those finalists are Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, McCann, Grey and incumbent Havas New York. We reached out to each of the agencies. GS&P, Grey and McCann all declined to comment, while Havas has yet to reply to our request for comment. Liberty Mutual has also yet to reply to a related email.

According to Kantar Media, Liberty Mutual spent $400 million on measured media promoting both its B2B and B2C businesses last year. It’s unclear how much was spent on B2C alone.

At the end of May Carnival Cruise Line launched a creative review, ending a nine-year relationship with Arnold Worldwide in the process.

“We are truly proud of the work and momentum we’ve created together the past nine years and we can confirm that we have mutually decided to part ways,” an Arnold spokesperson said in a statement at the time. “Our relationship with Carnival will be ending this fall, and we wish them the best of success in the future.”

Now sources tell us that R/GA and Droga5 are squaring off for the account in what is presumably the final stage of the review.

We reached out to all parties concerned. Droga5 declined to comment, while R/GA and Carnival Cruise Lines have yet to reply to our requests for comment.

Carnival Cruise Lines spent around $26 million on measured media in the U.S. last year, according to Kantar Media.

Last month, Ancestry.com selected Droga5 New York as its lead creative agency, following a review. Later in the month, the agency debuted its first work for the client with its “Declaration Descendants” July 4 effort. Back in March, Maine’s VIA Agency beat out Droga5 and an unnamed third finalist to win the L.L Bean creative account, according to several anonymous sources.

Earlier this week, Lay’s named BBDO as its new lead creative agency, following a review which included R/GA and three other agencies. Back in April, R/GA lost the E*Trade account when the client selected MullenLowe to handle creative and strategy following a review which also included 72andSunny and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.

A month prior, Samsung expanded its relationship with R/GA to include broadcast and in May it expanded to Japan with a Tokyo office. Earlier this month, R/GA parted ways with some employees in its New York headquarters in what a spokesperson called a “re-modeling” of its “company structure.”

The Boston headquarters and Winston-Salem, North Carolina branch of IPG’s MullenLowe parted with an unknown number of staffers last week, according to many parties who have reached out to us in recent days. The agency’s New York offices do not appear to have been affected.

These changes occurred despite several recent wins for MullenLowe including Mount Gay Rum, Talbots and, most significantly, E*Trade. Two sources confirmed in April that the network beat out R/GA, GS&P and 72andSunny to win the latter business. Its first campaign, which launched in June, took a cue from one Bernie Sanders in encouraging viewers to take on the 1 percent by … investing in their businesses.

MullenLowe representatives have not responded to related queries for this post.

According to our tipsters, the total was slightly more than 20 staffers across departments at the two locations, with digital and creative particularly affected.

The news also follows the recent departures of both offices’ presidents.

Geoff Cottrill, the former Converse CMO, led MullenLowe Boston until May, when he departed the agency. President Brad Higdon of MullenLowe Winston-Salem also left his position in May after approximately six months.

The reasons for this most recent change are unclear. An earlier round of layoffs was attributed a lack of new business wins following the loss of the USAA account, which went from Campbell Ewald to MullenLowe after the “Ghetto Day” incident but then got scooped up by Publicis Groupe in a “Power of One” coup.

TBWAChiatDay Los Angeles is in the market for a new car, and it might just be a Mitsubishi.

Earlier this year, Nissan surprised quite a few in the agency world by splitting with the Omnicom shop’s West Coast network after more than 30 years. Just over three months later, Mitsubishi—in which the company acquired a 34% stake in late 2016—also dropped 180LA as its creative agency of record.

Now we hear that TBWA hopes to make up for that loss by picking up the smaller account. According to Kantar Media, Mitsubishi spent $95 million on U.S. marketing last year.

The Nissan work didn’t leave Omnicom, it simply moved from TBWA L.A. to Zimmerman (broadcast) and the former agency’s New York team (social and digital). And since Nissan now owns part of Mitsubishi, its leadership is very familiar with the Omnicom roster. Like Pepsi, it seems that they’d prefer to keep things within the family.

On that point, one source very close to the matter tells us that TBWA’s West Coast executives recently had a meeting or meetings with Francine Harsini, senior director of marketing at Mitsubishi North America. This would not be the first time Harsini has come into contact with TBWA: she formerly served as managing supervisor there before moving in-house with DirecTV and eventually going to the Japan-based car company.

It’s not yet clear whether the two parties will work together. According to our source, Mitsubishi is notoriously hard on its agencies, and several people who worked on the account in the past told us that the client had been sending project work to independent L.A. shop Omelet and using that organization’s lower rates as leverage against 180LA.

Another party tells us that the meetings were part of a formal review involving TBWA, Omelet and other unnamed agencies.

A TBWA spokesperson deferred to the client, whose PR department has not responded to any of our calls or emails about the recent changes in its agency lineup. Omelet also declined to comment on the earlier story about its relationship with Mitsubishi.

More news to come on this account.

Sony PlayStation has named the D.C. office of AKQA as its newest digital agency, following a review.

An agency spokesperson declined to comment on the account today, but the source who confirmed the news said the assignment encompasses web design, game trailers, digital video, UX and more.

The review is rumored to have included Deloitte’s Heat and three other agencies, in addition to AKQA. The client, which is notoriously press-shy, purportedly structured the review process so that competitors wouldn’t know who they were pitching against. AKQA’s D.C. office already counted gaming companies Bethesda Softworks and Ubisoft among its client roster, and that category-relevant experience most likely factored into the win.

BBH New York has handled creative duties for PlayStation since being named lead creative agency February of 2013, following a review which included finalists Anomaly, 180LA and then-incumbent Deutsch.

It’s unclear whether the new assignment will have any impact on the scope of BBH New York’s work. The gaming giant has also worked with Johannes Leonardo and VB&P to promote the PlayStation Vue.

Toy giant Lego is in review mode.

This morning, Adweek reported on The Lego Group’s global media agency review. Several parties claimed that every major holding company with the exception of Omnicom is in the pitch, which has not yet advanced beyond the first round.

But it’s not just media—the company also recently launched a U.S. digital creative review.

Lego spokespeople have declined to officially confirm either development, stating that they regularly review all partners as a standard business procedure. But several parties have confirmed to us that the digital review is ongoing.

The company works with a variety of shops around the world and typically does not name an agency of record. Products like branded slippers and disabled figures tend to get more attention than traditional campaigns, and its most recent notable spot was this 2014 ad for girls by Union Made Creative.

The reasons for these reviews would appear to be twofold: new leadership and business challenges.

One might think, given the success of the recent Lego and Lego Batman movies, that the company would be riding high. In 2015, it sold 62 billion “elements,” or the equivalent of 102 bricks for every single person currently living in the world.

But the The Lego Group does not appear to profit directly from the movies, and sales in the U.S. (which is its biggest market) were flat last year despite a big marketing effort. Six months ago, former COO Bali Padda took over the chief executive role from Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, the current chairman who is widely credited with saving the traditionally family-run business during his decade-plus tenure.

It’s not clear at this time which agencies are pitching. According to Kantar Media, Lego spent around $85 million in the U.S. last year, and that total was nearly double its domestic marketing budget for 2015.

San Francisco agencies Heat and MUH-TAY-ZIK |HOF-FER have traded talent. Specifically, director of talent Katie Ramp, who moved from the former shop to the latter after nearly 6 years.

Both agencies have made some changes since they were acquired last year by Deloitte and VCCP, respectively. (No, the latter deal was not a “traditional” M&A. But its details remain unclear.)

As we hear it, new business efforts have been challenging for both shops over the past year, with many pitches but no PR-worthy wins.

According to one party with direct knowledge of the matter, Heat has increasingly been working on Deloitte-related projects as its parent company becomes one of its largest clients. Longtime employees have adjusted, and some members of the leadership team are allegedly constrained by generous “golden handcuffs” benefits packages designed to discourage them from going elsewhere.

That said, Heat did hire several parties away from shops like AKQA, Pereira & O’Dell, VB&P and Havas directly after the Deloitte deal. It then opened a New York office led by founders Steve Stone and John Elder with Evan Slater on creative, and its c-suite remains largely unchanged.

On the MUH-TAY-ZIK | HOF-FER side, the agency went thorough a small round of layoffs in both offices earlier in May, several months after promoting four new associate partners. As we hear it, less than ten individuals were affected, though the group did include creative director Todd Bois.

An agency spokesperson declined to comment on the news.

For the parent companies, Deloitte recently announced a new partnership with British engineering company McLaren Applied Technologies to “build data-driven business products” while VCCP debuted its first campaign as Canon’s new global creative AOR.

AKQA has expanded its relationship with top streaming service Netflix.

According to a very reliable source, the WPP network’s Berlin office recently beat out several other unnamed creative shops to win the business.

The agency’s Amsterdam office has worked on some Netflix campaigns in the past, primarily by handling interactive digital development for the “Big Questions” campaign by Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam that launched just over two years ago.

The precise scope of the new work is unclear, but according to our source it will involve promoting the second season of Stranger Things along with Better Call Saul and another Netflix original series.

This remit may also concern the streaming service itself. According to both recent reports and CEO Reed Hastings, Netflix plans a big European expansion after officials approve changes to licensing restrictions that often prevent customers from accessing certain films and shows.

At a press event in Berlin last month, Hastings said that his company is “just getting started”on the continent and that it plans to develop a bunch of European original series beyond The Crown.

An AKQA spokesperson deferred to the client for comment on this news. Netflix, which has always declined to share any information about its relationships with its many agency partners, has not responded to an email query.

Now rewatch the trailer for Stranger Things season two.

Food and supply store chain Smart & Final is in the RFP phase of a creative agency review, according to parties who reached out to us this week.

The California-based company, which formed as a conglomerate of several retailers, has worked with several agencies in the past.

The Phelps Group won a 1998 review to help the business rebrand, and Newport Beach’s HEILBrice appears to have been its last AOR, based on this brand spot shared on the agency’s YouTube page about a year ago.

A Smart & Final spokesperson declined to discuss the review, writing, “As a matter of practice, Smart & Final does not publicly comment on information related to its agency partners.”

According to Kantar Media, Smart & Final spent just over $5 million on measured media in 2016.

In terms of the overall business, the chain recently saw its revenue dip after acquiring several bankrupt Haggen Inc. stores and turning them into Smart & Final Extra! locations. But the company remains in expansion mode, and according to Supermarket News it “posted net income of $12.9 million [for 2016], vs. $38.3 million a year ago.”

We do not currently have information regarding the agencies involved in the review.

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.