Hasta La Creative!

After a review that started almost one year ago, the U.S. Census Bureau has chosen Y&R as lead creative agency to promote the upcoming 2020 population count.

We have yet to receive an official statement or confirmation from the organization itself after waiting on the phone for nearly an hour (they have real customers to attend to), but a source close to the matter told us that the calls went out to competing agencies this morning and that Y&R won the pitch.

This is not Y&R’s first government client; last month, it finally opened an office in Memphis to service the U.S. Navy account after almost a year of court challenges from incumbent Campbell Ewald.

Y&R has not responded to an email regarding the win, and FCB declined to comment on the news. The U.S. Census picked FCB to promote its last such project in 2010; at the time, the account was worth an estimated $300 million according to Kantar Media, which also has yet to get back to us for this post.

We hear that Y&R, FCB and McCann pitched the business. The Census will be working with other agencies beyond Y&R for other portions of the account, but we don’t know who they might be because, again, no one has responded to our queries all day.

At any rate, the 2020 project will be large. Last time, promotional materials were created in 14 different languages, and the RFP noted that the Census “fully intends to harness … emerging technologies and channels as an integral part of its communication program for the 2020 Census.”