Innocean Names 2 GCDs to Lead Creative Department in Eric Springer’s Absence

As our readers know, Hyundai’s Innocean has made moves to address the lawsuit filed against the agency and its chief creative officer Eric Springer since Adweek first broke the news last week.

On Friday, we reported that the office held an all-staff meeting to discuss the matter, allegedly averting a threatened walkout by an unspecified number of employees who were unhappy with the way management had dealt with the situation.

Monday, the agency’s representatives officially confirmed that Springer had been placed on leave pending the results of an investigation that reportedly involves an unnamed third-party consultant.

According to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, leadership held another all-staff meeting at the end of the day Monday to discuss the news:

  • First, CEO Steve Jun talked about Springer’s absence and Innocean’s decision to hire The 3% Conference to undergo that organization’s certification process.
  • VP of creative resources Jill Pool then announced that Bob Rayburn and Barney Goldberg would take over leadership on the Genesis and Hyundai corporate business, respectively, in Springer’s absence.
  • SVP of business development Angela Zepeda later told employees that “big changes for women in the agency are on the way,” referring to 3% and other unspecified efforts.
  • Jun reportedly ended the meeting with a statement about making Innocean a “safe space” and protecting both the agency and its leadership.

We reached out to 3% founder Kat Gordon, who provided the following statement:

“3% is thrilled to have Innocean as the latest agency to undergo our certification process. While 3% Certified highlights leadership among those who pass, it’s also a deeply powerful and diagnostic inquiry for any agency that wants to do better. We believe that real change only happens when agencies do the hard work of a deep assessment of their entire culture and has a customized action plan to create a workplace where everyone feels treasured, not tolerated. 3% Certification is exactly that.”

Current employees tell us that some of their concerns have yet to be addressed. Specifically, they do not understand why they were not made aware of the suit before the news broke and do not know what happened to former HR director Sepa Sete, who is no longer with the agency.

More than 24 hours ago, we reached out to Innocean’s representatives with specific questions about the meeting, the new roles for Rayburn and Goldberg, the comments allegedly made by Jun, Pool and Zepeda and employees’ speculation on the other matters. We also reached out to Rayburn and Goldberg regarding their new roles.

We have yet to receive a response to those messages, but will update this story when we do.

In further news, public documents also reveal a second harassment suit filed by a Catherine A. Bennett last fall that named Innocean as a defendant.

Updates to come.

We Hear: Innocean Employees Threaten Walkout Over Sexual Harassment Suit

One day after news of the sexual harassment suit filed against Innocean and chief creative officer Eric Springer broke—and nearly two whole months after the suit was initially filed—we have yet to receive any sort of formal response from the CCO, the agency, or its parent company Hyundai.

We have, however, received a lot of follow-up information from both current and former employees who are unhappy with the way management has dealt with the news.

Multiple parties tell us that the vast majority of the 300-plus employees at the agency’s Huntington Beach headquarters had no knowledge of the suit before Adweek’s story went live yesterday.

We also hear from two different sources that staffers are extremely unhappy with management’s apparent decision to stand behind Springer. There have been no announcements about the case, and speculation holds that the CCO will remain in his job unless executives at Hyundai choose to act.

(While Innocean became a publicly traded company in 2015, the Chung family of South Korea, descended from Hyundai founder Chung Ju-yung, remain its largest shareholders.)

One current employee expressed disbelief that leadership has not moved to fire or discipline Springer. Another said that Steve Jun, who became CEO in 2015 when his predecessor suddenly moved back to South Korea, was seen standing in line for happy hour yesterday while his employees all talked about the case around him. (We are aware that this incident was mentioned on Fishbowl, but we have discussed it directly with a very reliable source.)

Two other parties tell us that staffers are threatening a mass walkout on Monday if the company does not act.

Since the story first broke, multiple women have reached out to say that they, too, went through some form of harassment while working under Springer. A former junior employee says that she experienced “belittling behavior” from management but felt powerless to act during her time there. An individual who briefly considered joining the agency says she was “warned about Eric,” while another says news of the suit was unsurprising given his “reputation.”

A male Innocean veteran wrote, “I worked in that office and can verify that everything Victoria alleges is true, and more. Eric is the epitome of the overly confident and overly empowered frat boy-turned executive who’s never been held accountable for his actions in any arena. The only thing that surprises me about this reporting is that it took so long for it to become public.”

He also described as “tone deaf” the fact that the shop ran an International Women’s day post celebrating female employees on its Instagram account approximately two hours after the story first broke.

The post has since apparently been deleted.

Another interesting note brought to our attention by an anonymous tipster: Victoria Guenier, the producer who brought the suit against Springer, received a production credit on “The Force,” the Deutsch Volkswagen spot on which Springer served as group creative director. So the two parties have known each other for some time.

Innocean is reportedly holding an all-staff meeting late this afternoon to discuss the case with employees.

Updates to come.

We Hear: JWT Eliminated From Global Kimberly-Clark Review as Ogilvy Hangs On

Today Adweek broke the news that Kimberly-Clark, the personal-care monolith behind everything from Huggies to Kleenex to Kotex, launched a global creative review in early January.

That’s a big one for WPP, whose agencies have long handled the vast majority of the company’s marketing business in the U.S. and abroad. The lineup includes Ogilvy, JWT, VML, VSA Partners and probably a few more.

According to a spokesperson, the client is “assessing the current agency landscape for creative services,” which means it’s looking to restructure its international agency lineup.

This doesn’t necessarily mean consolidation with one network. Back in 2015, the company’s old CMO told AdAge that he would rather go for an “Uber-style” agency of choice model that sounds a lot like a jump ball pitch.

It’s not quite clear what K-C wants to do in terms of agency structure, but the company has already cut its spend with WPP over the past year-plus, so we have to believe it has savings on the brain like its chief rivals Unilever and P&G. One month ago, the company also announced plans to cut some 5,000 jobs and close factories around the world, attributing the move to a desire to be “leaner, stronger and faster.”

At this time we don’t know who, exactly, is pitching against Team WPP, because PRs at all the major holding groups declined to comment.

Multiple sources do tell us, however, that this review is especially critical for Ogilvy and JWT. And while the former remains in all-hands-on-deck defense mode with an international, multi-office pitch led by one Tham Khai Meng, JWT has already been eliminated—at least in the U.S.

The agency worked on Kleenex and various Family Care brands while Ogilvy had Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex, etc.

More to come on this review, which arrives at a particularly sensitive for WPP after stock prices took their biggest dip in almost two decades yesterday.

[Image via]

Blind Items: Meet the Sneaker Police

Oh hey, it’s been a while between Blind Items. Before we get into this one, a question: does your agency have a dress code?

We all agree that clients are super annoying. They’re impossible to please, they’re always wanting more for less, and they care SO MUCH about appearances. Literally.

One agency in particular went through a bit of drama on that front in recent weeks. Seems the person in charge is so afraid of upsetting one particular sneaker client that he or she insists on overseeing employees’ fashion choices.

Here are a series of emails sent to all staff concerning three popular brands that compete directly with the client for market share:

  • “Hello all, [Client A] will be here all day tomorrow so please be mindful and do not wear [X, Y or Z]. Thanks and Happy Wednesday!”
  • 5 days later: “Good morning everyone, [Client A] will be in the office again today (Monday). Please do not wear [X, Y, or Z]. Thank you!”
  • 3 days later: “Hi, [Client A] will be in again tomorrow morning. Please refrain from wearing [X, Y, or Z]. Thank you & have a lovely evening!”
  • 10 days later: “The [A] clients will be in the office tomorrow. Please refrain from wearing [X, Y, Z] or any other competitive brands. Thanks!”

We hear this may not be the full list of the emails.

According to our sources, employees initially thought the whole thing was a joke. But the requests kept coming, so eventually staff wised up.

But that’s not all. We hear that the agency’s top brass didn’t think the emails (at least one of which went out on a Sunday) were quite forceful enough, so he or she went so far as to make the rounds in the office, checking on which brands each employee happened to be wearing that day.

In fact, meetings may have been interrupted and individuals taken to task for daring to wear something other than the client’s own products.

Of course we’ve heard of agencies where staff members all drive the big client’s cars … and one has to assume this particular brand gets generous with the swag. But we haven’t come across such a discerning eye for fashion outside Project Runway.

We Hear: BBDO Will Try to Repair Wells Fargo’s Reputation in Wake of Account Fraud Scandal

In case you missed it, banking brand Wells Fargo has taken something of a beating in the arena of public opinion due to a scandal involving millions of fake savings and checking accounts created by employees in response to alleged performance pressures.

Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve also punished the company by effectively restricting its ability to grow until it makes changes to its board of directors.

And just this week, Senator Elizabeth Warren chided the company’s relatively new CEO Tim Sloan for admitting that the company had “charged nearly 600,000 customers for auto insurance they didn’t need,” “improperly charged 110,000 customers fees to extend their mortgage rate locks,” and “bungled its reimbursements to the auto loan and mortgage rate lock customers.”

This was all after the fake account issue had seemingly been resolved.

Now, we hear that the company is turning to a familiar party for help: its ad agency of record, BBDO San Francisco.

According to our sources, the shop plans to launch a new campaign with “a multi-million dollar budget” that is specifically designed to improve the bank’s reputation after more than a years’ worth of bad headlines.

Since winning the account in early 2014 (it had been with DDB for nearly 20 years), BBDO has indeed produced some surprising efforts. Its first campaign, for example, starred a real-life lesbian couple learning sign language before a touching last-minute reveal about their plans to adopt a deaf girl also played by a real-life deaf girl.

Regarding this post, a BBDO spokesperson referred us back to the client for comment. Wells Fargo representatives wrote, “We typically launch a new brand campaign every year in the Spring.  Currently, we are working through the details of our 2018 plans.”

So it’s unclear exactly how the agency will attempt to address the issues that its client has faced over the past year-plus. How would you do it?

We Hear: Verizon Doesn’t Have Coverage in Location Featured in ‘Answering The Call’ Super Bowl Spot

Verizon went the emotional route with its 60-second “Answering The Call” spot from McCann New York in Super Bowl LII. The ad featured first responders to a series of natural disasters across the country. Implicating the network’s role in facilitating such communication is the line “They answer the call. Our job is to make sure they can get it” near the conclusion of the ad. Among the first responders pictured is a member Quincy, Illinois’ fire department.

The problem? It appears Verizon’s network doesn’t offer coverage in Quincy or the surrounding area.

At least that’s the assertion in a blog post from a local country station. “When I moved to this area, I had to switch from Verizon, a carrier I had been with for 10 years, because they didn’t have coverage,” the post claims.

Quincy is, of course, just one of the areas featured in the ad. But it seems at least one area resident objects to Verizon’s use of a local tragedy for what “felt like a cheap, exploitative ploy.”

It’s not the first time Verizon has been accused of something like this. A 2013 spot featured actor Donnie Wahlberg touting Verizon FiOS while on the streets of Boston at a time when the service was reportedly not offered in the city.

We Hear: T-Mobile Planned to Run a Super Bowl Ad Starring Sean Spicer and Anthony Scaramucci

T-Mobile ran a gentle message of equality for its Super Bowl LII ad, narrated by Kerry Washington and set to a cover of Nirvana‘s “All Apologies.”

The 60-second spot, which was created in-house and ran during the third quarter, was a notable shift in tone from the brand’ previous Super Bowl efforts. As it turns out, T-Mobile may have had something far different in mind.

The Wall Street Journal cited a TMZ report that the brand had reached out to former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci about appearing in its Super Bowl ad before dropping the idea.

A source told AgencySpy that the brand had planned to to run a Super Bowl ad with Scaramucci and former White House press secretary Sean Spicer. When the plans fell through, the source claims, T-Mobile switched gears dramatically, wrote the new ad in-house and shot it around ten days before the Super Bowl.

It’s unclear at what point in the process this happened or whether TMZ’s other assertion—that the ad was centered around “Scaramucci at a podium fielding questions about T-Mobile, and whenever someone had their information wrong he’d scream, ‘Fake news!!!’”—has any validity.

Still, we’d all like to imagine the Spicer/Scaramucci spot that could have been. And we can say that neither of T-Mobile’s main agencies, Mother and Publicis Seattle, had anything to do with the ad that eventually aired.

We reached out to T-Mobile for comment today but have yet to receive a response.

We Hear: Expedia Splits with 180LA After 6 Years in Global Consolidation Move

180LA has lost the Expedia account after almost 6 years, according to several parties familiar with the agency’s business.

Recent reports are in keeping with this claim: just over a week ago, news broke that the travel company had consolidated all five of its global accounts with Saatchi & Saatchi after a three month review that our sources claim ended in early January. Those reports do not mention 180LA but do note that Team One will be working on “creative development, brand strategy and execution” in Los Angeles.

It would seem, given the timeline, that 180LA lasted until the final round of the review. But that’s not clear from the official statements.

In early 2012, 180LA beat out GS&P and Creature for the account, which had been with The Martin Agency for three years. It went on to create a wide range of work from the debut UGC campaign “Find Yours” to a VR project with St. Jude’s Hospital and the interactive “Visit Britain,” which won Gold and Bronze Lions at Cannes last year.

Expedia x The Only Place [Case Study] from FLO. on Vimeo.

We have reached out to both 180LA and Expedia this week. The former deferred to the client and the latter has yet to provide a statement.

Recent spending totals for Expedia are not available at this time. The company has long maintained its own in-house agency, Expedia Media Solutions, that offers services to third party brands and stretches across all associated properties like Hotels.com, Orbitz and Travelocity.

Lowe’s Enters Final Stage of 3-Part Regional Creative Review

In December, home improvement giant Lowe’s confirmed that it would be the latest retailer to break with tradition in abandoning the traditional agency of record model.

That news came in the form of a creative review that launched after Lowe’s parted with its CMO and moved its media buying business from OMD to Starcom, thereby ending an exclusive 12-year relationship with Omnicom.

This review, however, is unique in several ways.

Lowe’s is hardly the first client eager to keep its options open on the agency front. But according to three parties with direct knowledge of the matter, the current review is organized by region, with three separate pitches involving agencies in the Northeast, Southeast and Midwest portions of the United States. (Lowe’s is based in Mooresville, North Carolina.)

Each pitch involves three finalists competing to be Lowe’s creative agency for their respective regions. Our sources say the process is now in its last stages, with final presentations occurring last week.

Moving forward, Lowe’s will retain all three winners, maintaining the equivalent of an open-format business relationship with each. In other words, the different shops could simultaneously work on different and potentially complimentary projects. According to our sources, major projects will also follow a “jump ball” round in which the three agencies will pitch against one another.

All factors strongly indicate that spending concerns helped shape this approach, with earlier reports stating that Lowe’s looks to move away from major TV and print work in order to focus more heavily on digital campaigns.

But this not a standard consolidation effort in which a major client moves all work to a single holding group. When news of the review first broke, a BBDO representative confirmed that the agency would be defending its business. According to our sources, IPG’s Ep.+Co, sister agency to Hill Holliday, is also competing in the Southeastern pitch.

A BBDO representative deferred to the client for further comment, and an Ep+Co. spokesperson declined to comment. Lowe’s also declined to elaborate on the review, and the full list of agencies involved is unclear at this time.

All of our sources, however, agree that the winners should be announced in coming weeks.

We Hear: Red Robin Splits with KBS

Red Robin appears to be in search of a new creative agency.

KBS is no longer working with the client, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Red Robin has yet to respond to repeated requests for comment. As of publication, a KBS spokesperson has also yet to respond to our request for comment.

The burger-focused casual dining chain appointed KBS as its agency of record in July of 2016, following a review launched that April. KBS subsequently rolled out a man bun-mocking campaign at the beginning of the year. Red Robin had previously worked with Vitro, which it named as its AOR back in 2013.

KBS announced yesterday that it would not be participating in longtime client BMW’s creative review, which was launched in October.

Droga5, W+K, GS&P, Anomaly and Hill Holliday Face Off in BMW Creative Review

Yesterday, incumbent KBS confirmed many suspicions and officially ended its relationship with longtime staple client BMW after more than a decade.

In an all-staff email, CEO Guy Hayward didn’t really explain why. But we have some pretty good ideas…

Now, two very reliable sources tell us the final 5 have been chosen, and they’re ready to pitch:

  • Droga5
  • Wieden+Kennedy
  • Goodby Silverstein & Partners
  • Anomaly
  • Hill Holliday

Bit of an all-over-the-map roundup here, but we do have some of the best big-name agencies around competing for our favorite fancy car brand.

Back in October, we learned that the client would be making the expected, procurement-led review official. Around the same time, BMW ended its relationship with social media agency Laundry Service and moved that work to Critical Mass, which had been handling its web design for a year.

Laundry Service would probably say that’s because they were getting ready to start working on creative director Matthew McConaughey’s favorite auto brand.

A BMW representative declined to comment—as did reps for both Hill Holliday and GS&P. But the former is looking for a win as Dunkin’ Donuts threatens to part ways with both the Donuts in its name and its longtime agency of record thanks to one Tony Weisman, CMO extraordinaire.

None of the other agencies have responded. Roth Ryan Hayes, the consultancy running the review, had also not responded to our email by the time this post went live.

More to come. KBS will continue working on the BMW account through next June.

We Hear: Ford to Re-Examine Its Relationship with WPP in 2018

Ford appears to be re-examining its relationship with WPP’s dedicated agency GTB going into 2018.

A client representative provided the following statement:

“We value the talented and creative men and women at WPP. They are trusted partners and curators of the Ford brand. As we are across the Ford business, we are exploring options to improve the fitness of our marketing and advertising operations. No decisions have been made.”

Representatives for both GTB and WPP deferred to the client.

It’s unclear if “exploring options” refers to a potential formal review, but the statement seems to indicate that Ford will reassess its relationship with the agency in some capacity and that unspecified changes are being considered.

Last month, the auto giant promoted Kumar Galhotra to CMO. Former CEO Mark Fields was replaced by James Hackett, who had run the company’s Smart Mobility division, back in May.

GTB has faced a series of setbacks this year. Longtime chief creative officer Toby Barlow left the Ford-dedicated WPP unit back in February, and the agency brought on TBWA veteran Tito Melega to replace him in September.

SVP, director of platforms and partnerships John Gray then went to Pinterest this spring before the agency laid off between 100 and 150 employees over the summer. Earlier this month, we also learned that Dwayne Raupp, who co-lead GTB’s invention design studio, Kinetic Optimism Studio, had left the agency to become executive creative director at Huge Detroit.

We Hear: Agencies Asking Production Companies to Work on Their Super Bowl Ads for Free

As we all know, the relationship between agencies and production companies is something of a “can’t live with them, can’t launch our own full-service unit” sort of thing.

And it may be getting a bit more tense as clients tighten their budgets.

Specifically, one source claims that certain unnamed agencies have been asking production partners to work on their biggest campaigns of the year for free.

This party, who has a long history in the agency world, told us that agencies have approached production companies regarding their upcoming Super Bowl campaigns with an unusual request: front us the work and we will pay you later.

Details remain somewhat sparse, but the claim is there’s an understanding that production companies will get the money they’re owed for the work … at some point. One source speculates that this movement stems, in part, from clients moving toward 120-day billing terms at a time when agency profit margins are growing slimmer and agencies simply don’t have the money to pay for the work until the client gets their fees to them. Grey reportedly quit the Coty account for this very reason.

According to several parties who’ve discussed the matter with us, production work is now the most—if not the only—profitable department at many agencies. And this narrative is very similar to tales from the Department of Justice’s ongoing investigation into the practice of “bid rigging” by which large agencies divert such work to their own in-house studios. In those cases, the shops allegedly do this while promising that they will steer project toward the same production companies at some future date in exchange for participation in a rigged bidding process.

Then, of course, there’s the matter of actors unions accusing holding group production units of finding ways to avoid casting union talent in campaigns.

A veteran of the production company world tell us that this sort of thing has happened in the past, but never for a project as big-budget or high-profile as a Super Bowl campaign.

In one such incident, an agency allegedly sent its production company a spec spot project, stating that they would only get paid if the client chose to run the ad (they did).

We’ve reached out to multiple parties regarding this latest claim. The anonymous tip box is on the right.

We Hear: Campari Talking to Creative Agencies for Skyy Vodka

Spirits company Campari has reached out to agencies regarding its Skyy Vodka brand, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.

The Skyy brand has been in something of a transitional phase since splitting with Venables Bell & Partners, which became its first lead creative partner in 2013 after Campari bought the brand for an estimated $200 million plus. The account had previously been with branding agency Lambesis, which made all those famous print ads, for 15 years.

Early last year, we noted that the brand was shopping around for a new creative agency partner. Its most recent campaign, launched in April, came from New York’s Agency 5 O’Clock, which specializes in beverage clients. That shop was co-founded by former BFG Communications VP and brand strategist Larry McGearty.

Here’s the spot, which was part of a larger campaign called “Make. Every Day.” shot by Irish fashion photographer Tony Kelly.

According to our source, Skyy reached out to several prominent agencies, but talks with at least one shop later broke down. Back in 2014, the brand’s estimated media spend was around $30 million.

Campari PR responded to our query regarding the review by writing, “we don’t comment on rumors or speculation.”

We also reached out to 5 O’Clock and will update this post if we receive more information.

We Hear: The Weinstein Company Calling on Creative Agencies for a Rebrand

In case you missed it (we really hope you didn’t), The Weinstein Company is in deep trouble.

In less than a week, Harvey Weinstein went from the king of faux art house cinema to a pariah fired from his own company for multiple allegations of sexual harassment and, as of today, sexual assault.

Now, two parties tell us that the company has reached out to more than one major creative agency for a potential rebranding project.

The details remain somewhat fuzzy as no one has been willing to discuss the matter on the record, but the reason behind it is quite obvious: any and all things associated with Harvey Weinstein are now pure poison.

This won’t be your standard “refresh” assignment. According to our sources, the winning agency will be tasked with developing a new name and logo for whatever The Weinstein Company will eventually become. Unfortunately, the group cannot get rid of its origin story.

Now the question is, which agencies might these be? The most obvious answers would come from the WPP family, given the fact that Martin Sorrell’s network has invested in Weinstein since 2005 and includes quite a few potential shops.

Today a spokesperson declined to comment on those rumors for an Adweek story regarding the fact that EVP Lance Maerov is currently one of four remaining members of Weinstein’s board of directors.

The Weinstein Company itself has not responded to a related query.

We Hear: Ogilvy Behind ‘Racially Insensitive’ Dove Ad

Unilever’s Dove brand removed and apologized for a Facebook ad over the weekend following a backlash decrying the ad. The below image of the ad was shared widely across social media and criticized for its perceived insensitivity.

Several such posters went as far as to point out similarities to blatantly racist ads of the Victorian era.
Dove responded to the backlash by pulling the ad, with the following message:

We reached out to a Dove representative, who provided the following explanation:

As a part of a campaign for Dove Body Wash, a 3-second video clip was posted to the US Facebook page which featured three women of different ethnicities, each removing a t-shirt to reveal the next woman. The short video was intended to convey that Dove Body Wash is for every woman and be a celebration of diversity, but we got it wrong. It did not represent the diversity of real beauty which is something Dove is passionate about and is core to our beliefs, and it should not have happened. We have removed the post and have not published any other related content. This should not have happened and we are re-evaluating our internal processes for creating and approving content to prevent us making this type of mistake in [the] future. We apologize deeply and sincerely for the offense that it has caused and do not condone any activity or imagery that insults any audience.

One question that remains: Who was responsible for the ad? Dove did not clarify in the initial email and did not respond to a second query asking that specific question a second time.

Ogilvy & Mather has long served as agency of record for the Unilever brand, which has been accused of racism in past ad campaigns.

We reached out to the agency for comment multiple times today, but have yet to receive a reply.

We Hear: Martin Sorrell Assembling One of His Famous Teams to Save the Papa John’s Business

In case you missed it (you almost certainly didn’t), Papa John’s has launched a creative agency review with extra toppings—its first since 2014, when Grey won the business away from Zimmerman.

AdAge broke the news yesterday, almost exactly three and a half months after former Wendy’s vp of advertising Brandon Rhoten joined the company as its new CMO. Like clockwork, he alerted “10 agencies and holding companies” with the goal of ending the review later this year and starting a “new creative vision” for the pizza chain.

Rhoten implied that Grey could retain the business as long as it sticks to “the new expectations” but also emphasized a desire to name an agency partner with capabilities that go beyond “traditional” creative. Perhaps he has heard that Grey has its own post-production studio.

Today a client spokesperson said that he cannot reveal which agencies are involved, adding, “We need a creative AOR that can help Papa John’s stand out in the commoditized pizza category and make clear Papa John’s commitment to better pizza. All in a world where more than 60 percent of our domestic sales come from digital channels.”

In short, Papa John’s wants to compete against Domino’s by focusing more on digital delivery orders, social media and stunts like the kind that CP+B has been dreaming up for a decade or so. They really missed out on the emoji ordering and the self-driving cars.

Now we hear that Sir Martin Sorrell really wants to keep the account, which makes some sense as Papa John’s generally spends between $100 and $150 million on paid media in the U.S. each year. He is purportedly in the process of arranging one of his famous cross-agency teams to pitch the business, though it’s not clear at this time which shops will contribute beyond the incumbent.

A spokesperson for Grey deferred to the client for comment, and WPP corporate PR hasn’t gotten back to us.

On a related note, we find it kind of interesting that Papa John’s likes to publicize the finalists in its creative reviews. Or at least it did back in the halcyon days of 2013. Anyway, something tells us Peyton Manning isn’t going anywhere.

[Pic via]

We Hear: Mini Review Comes Down to R/GA and 360i

Back in March, BSSP made headlines for resigning the Mini account after more than 11 years.

It was the agency’s longest-held account, but the company’s reliance on procurement-mandated reviews and its assorted cost-cutting measures led to diminishing returns, and CEO Greg Stern told us that he couldn’t justify going through another review.

Several parties also indicated that parent company BMW had moved more of the creative work on that brand in-house after dropping BSSP for UM on the media side—and that it would continue to do so after the current review.

Now, we hear that the announcement will come in the next few days, with the final round pitting R/GA against 360i.

According to two individuals familiar with that matter, several of the agencies competing for some portion of the Mini business—along with that of its parent company—also took issue with the nature of the contract. These agencies allegedly included Anomaly, Huge, 360i and R/GA, at least two of which dropped out. The client then reportedly restructured the specifics.

There’s been a good bit of confusion on all sides as the specifics of the contract dispute and the nature of the assignments being considered are unclear. Some were initially called in to discuss the BMW brand, and it would appear that multiple briefs were involved. Others report a disconnect between the company’s marketing teams in Germany and the United States.

Beam of Boston has been Mini’s social and digital AOR for several, but we do not believe they were involved in the final rounds of the current review. According to one source, the client’s brief initially concerned “digital transformation” on BMW but later expanded to include the Mini brand as well.

For context, BMW will officially go into review next year, again due to procurement status. It is not clear whether global AOR KBS will defend.

Representatives from Anomaly, Huge, R/GA and 360i all declined to comment or did not respond to related messages this week.

When we reached out to Beam, a representative from the PR firm working on Mini responded, stating simply that the company would share more news “once the review process wraps in Q4.”

We Hear: Ogilvy in Talks to Handle Macy’s Brand Work

Macy’s is in talks with Ogilvy regarding its advertising business, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.

Ogilvy representatives deferred to the client for comment this week. A Macy’s spokesperson wrote, “We are always assessing our options to identify the best partner for the Macy’s brand.”

According to our sources, however, the talks are ongoing and Ogilvy New York looks to “take on” the Macy’s business. This would be different from recent moves by the classic retailer, which has long eschewed an agency of record in favor of hiring shops on a per-project basis for work usually focused on the holiday sales season.

The most recent RFP, issued in late 2015, ended with Macy’s picking BBH and Figliulo&Partners for campaigns which included a tribute to the famous Thanksgiving Day Parade by the former agency’s New York office. This followed a split between Macy’s and former creative partner JWT after more than a decade. At the time, the client declined to comment on whether the decision to stop working with that agency had anything to do with the Erin Johnson/Gustavo Martinez case, which had been making headlines for several weeks at that point.

BBH declined to comment on its relationship with Macy’s today, but more than one party told us it did not work with the company beyond the 2016 holiday effort. A Figliulo&Partners representative had not yet responded to our email when this post went live, though recent reports stated that the agency has continued to work on the account in some capacity into this summer.

Last April, CMO Martine Reardon stepped down to be replaced by Richard Lennox of Toys ‘R Us, who then announced plans to lead a turnaround by focusing on digital, closing stores and reducing staff. BBDO veteran Jim Reath joined Macy’s as its new SVP of marketing this May after running the Lowe’s account for several years.

Despite its well-publicized struggles, Macy’s remains a huge advertiser. The company spent nearly $600 million on U.S. measured media in 2016 according to Kantar Media, and its holiday ads are some of the retail sector’s most-watched each year.

We Hear: Eastport Holdings In Talks to Acquire Fahlgren Mortine

Eastport Holdings, a private equity-backed “consolidator of advertising agencies,” does not appears to be slowing down in its quest to rival Mark Penn’s Stagwell Group as the leader in M&A deals involving mid-sized agencies across the country.

Much like Stagwell, Memphis-based Eastport has been quietly picking up creative, marketing and PR shops in seven and eight figure deals for several years. Last year, the group bought BFG Communications, a small shop with offices in South Carolina, New York and Atlanta. Other recent acquisitions include Pittsburgh’s MARC USA and Ten35, a multicultural shop launched by the founders of the now-defunct Commonground/MGS.

According to a party who reached out to us this week, gossip around the industry holds that Eastport’s newest target is Fahlgren Mortine, a Columbus, Ohio-based agency that handles marketing and PR work for clients ranging from McDonald’s to Nevada Tourism.

Here’s their 2016 agency reel, and below is a case study of their work with McDonald’s; they have been AOR for the chain’s co-cops for more than 30 years.

Fahlgren Mortine, which calls itself “one of the nation’s largest independent marketing and communications agencies,” employs more than 200 across 15 offices in 8 states and focuses on its integrated model.

An agency representative provided the following statement in response to our query:

“In the normal course of business, we frequently review opportunities to enhance our growth through acquisitions and strategic partnerships. It’s not unusual for other organizations to approach us in that regard. It is our policy never to comment on such discussions.”

Eastport Holdings has a similar policy. They have never responded to any of our queries regarding acquisitions, and executives did not answer an email about the rumored deal this week.

In 2011, Fahlgren Mortine had revenues between $5 and $10 million, according to an award the agency received from PR organization Bulldog Reporter.

The agency has recently made some acquisitions and restructuring moves of its own, buying Turner PR in 2014 and hiring former Carmichael Lynch CEO Doug Spong (who long ran his own communications agency) last year.