Dive Brief:
- Fast food chain Wendy’s has promoted its digital marketing firm VML (part of the WPP network) to its agency of record, replacing Publicis North America.
- The move is designed to integrate Wendy’s marketing across digital, social and traditional communications channels.
- Publicis North America served as Wendy’s agency of record beginning in 2009.
Dive Insight:
The move by Wendy's comes as another hit to the Publicis Groupe network after last year’s “reviewageddon” saw a much higher number of agency reviews than usual. An estimated $26 billion in ad spend was up for review as of mid-2015, according to a Morgan Stanley report. That amount exceeded the total amount of accounts reviewed over the previous three years combined.
The reviews are a result of brands looking to cut costs, both in terms of fees paid to agencies and the costs of media buys, according to Maurice Levy, chairman and chief executive of Publicis Groupe.
"VML has proven that it can tell the Wendy's story in a modern and compelling way that drives winning business results," said Kurt Kane, Wendy's Chief Concept & Marketing Officer, in a statement. "By streamlining the creative process with VML, we believe our advertising and marketing disciplines will continue delivering strong results across our business while further setting our brand apart from the QSR (quick service restaurant) pack."
Other agencies continuing to work with Wendy’s include: Bravo, MediaVest, Saatchi and Saatchi X, and Ketchum.