Advertising agency Ogilvy is the latest addition to Verizon’s roster of agencies tackling the brand’s B2B account.
“Verizon is one of America’s most iconic brands and we are honored to use the power of creativity to impact their brand and business,” said Devika Bulchandani, global CEO of Ogilvy.
According to a source with inside knowledge about the pitch process and the selection of Verizon’s new agency, Ogilvy sent in the heavies to handle the pitch. The agency dispatched Chris Beresford-Hill, Ogilvy’s North America president and CCO, and Mick McCabe, global CSO to win the account, and they did.
It’s an unusual choice considering that Rob Reilly, the WPP global chief creative officer, formerly led creative at McCann and worked on the Verizon account.
“Ogilvy has been added to our agency roster to focus on our B2B business, while we continue to work with our long-standing partners at McCann on Consumer and other key business priorities,” a Verizon spokesperson stated.
The latest changes to the roster are the result of Verizon integrating its media agency partners following the acquisition of TracFone. For MediaHub, which was in charge of TracFone up to now, it likely means the end of cooperation with Verizon which is consolidating all media planning and buying with Publicis.
“It was the right time to take a closer look at our media partnerships to ensure we’re optimizing performance, maximizing our use of data and technology across segments and driving the ongoing efficacy of our go-to-market approaches,” the spokesperson said.
Ogilvy has recently been on a real winning streak, adding Audi, H&R Block and SC Johnson to its roster this year.
As for other changes at Verizon, its longtime chief creative officer Andrew McKechnie stepped down in October and the marketing department had a restructuring of its own with the merging of McKechnie’s creative marketing group and Verizon’s marketing activation team.
McKechnie’s departure from the team followed the completion of a pre-established five-year plan. He was responsible for transforming the creative marketing group into a fully-fledged in-house agency. The brand praised this effort by saying that it has “driven significant cost savings for the company by streamlining external vendor fees and costs.”
The latest change marks a new era for both Verizon and Ogilvy and resulted in a partnership that is likely to deliver unparalleled quality in years to come.
