Agency news you need to know this week

Texas Pete enlists McKinney Hot sauce brand Texas Pete has named McKinney as its creative and media agency of record following a competitive review. The Durham, North Carolina-based agency, which replaces Creative Energy on the account, aims to help Texas Pete expand beyond the Southeast. McKinney has already launched a social campaign for the brand, “There Ain’t No SriraCHA Shortage,” promoting Texas Pete’s CHA! sriracha while competitor Huy Fong Foods stalls production. The campaign will feature social, out-of-home efforts and store signage, all with detailed long text explaining Texas Pete's perspective on the supposed sriracha shortage and offering hidden promo codes for discounts on bottles of CHA! PMG launches new unit Ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games, PMG has established a sports marketing practice. The Fort Worth, Texas-based independent shop has hired Dan Conti to spearhead the new unit. Conti joins from GroupM’s Wavemaker, where he was global head of sports and built the agency’s Sports & Live practice, supporting brands such as DoorDash, Coinbase and Paramount+, according to a PMG statement. He will report to PMG President Jon Dupuis. Also read: GroupM’s new CEO faces hurdles in reviving agency Havas loses B Corp status B Lab, the nonprofit organization that awards B Corp certification, has revoked the B Corp status of Havas London, Havas Lemz, Havas New York and Havas Immerse because another one of the holding company’s shops, Havas Media, has a contract with Shell. “The investigation found that Havas’ actions constitute a breach of the B Corp community’s core values as expressed in our Declaration of Interdependence,” B Lab said in a statement. “While the certified B Corps are not directly involved in providing services to the client, Havas’ structure and use of a common brand name across some of its agencies means that the entire group is ultimately required to earn certification, per B Lab rules; this places the group’s actions in scope for this investigation.” Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs The decision comes after a months-long investigation process, prompted by calls for Havas to lose its certification from other B Corp agencies and climate activists. Other entities within Havas are now ineligible to certify, B Lab said in its statement. “Havas has cooperated in good faith throughout B Lab’s investigation, while simultaneously preserving the integrity of confidential client information,” Havas said in a statement. “Whilst the investigation recognizes that our certified agencies do not have a relationship with Shell, we accept the ruling and they will cease to be B Corp certified.” Droga5 creates two potential emojis For World Emoji Day on Wednesday, Droga5 teamed with the HT40 Foundation and Shoulder Check to create two potential mental health emojis, aiming to create a simple yet powerful way for people to start conversations and check in on one another. To ensure the emoji resonates with those who would be using it the most, HT40 asked people to vote for their favorite design in the comment section of an Instagram post—which was shared OOH via QR codes and events. Just briefly Omnicom Group on Tuesday reported second-quarter organic revenue growth of 5.2%. The holding company’s advertising and media segment was up 7.8% organically for the period. French consulting firm Sia Partners has acquired Ready Set Rocket, a 30-person digital agency that has worked with brands including BlackRock, Condé Nast and Sweetgreen. Terms of the deal, which aims to scale RSR’s capabilities, were not disclosed. Omnicom’s precision marketing shop, RAPP, has been appointed direct response marketing AOR for Princess Cruises after a competitive bidding process with four other agencies. There was no incumbent on the account, according to a spokesperson for RAPP.

Agency news you need to know this week

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