Agency news you need to know this week

The root beer floats are on them A&W Restaurants has retained longtime partner Cornett as its agency of record following a competitive pitch. “One of the key reasons we chose to stay with Cornett as our advertising partner is their track record of delivering innovative and creative campaigns that really help us to stand out in a crowded marketplace,” Liz Bazner, senior director of marketing for A&W Restaurants, said in a statement. The renewal is for three years and the relationship goes back over a decade. Ad Age Best Places to Work 2024 50 companies doing a standout job See the full list here Cornett’s work for the chain has highlighted its past while also being humorous. In 2021, A&W Restaurants introduced a Tender Lovin’ Lip Balm made with its fryer oil for Valentine’s Day. That same year it debuted a 3/9 burger, a play on the third-pound burger A&W Restaurants introduced in the 1980s, which caused mass confusion among its consumers. A&W has come a long way since The Atlantic included it in an article headlined, “10 Brands That Will Die in 2012.” “When we were sold by Yum Brands [in 2011] we had been neglected for a while, and our franchisees had had a really tough time of things,” Bazner told Ad Age in 2022. “I’m happy to say 11 years later, our same-store sales are up by 67% from when the brand was sold.” Print some new business cards WPP merged two of its top public relations firms, Hill & Knowlton and BCW, to form a communications agency named Burson. Corey duBrowa, currently global CEO of BCW, has been named global CEO of Burson, and AnnaMaria DeSalva, currently global chairman and CEO of Hill & Knowlton, has been named global chairman of Burson. The new entity will become operational on July 1. The newly formed agency is named after the late PR pioneer Harold Burson and will have more than 6,000 employees in 43 markets globally. “Hill & Knowlton and BCW are two high-performing businesses with complementary strengths, shared ambitions, and many shared clients,” WPP’s CEO Mark Read said in a statement. “I am delighted to see the Burson brand brought back to unite them.” The news comes just a few months after WPP announced the merger between VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson to form VML. A three-part party DoorDash Canada’s newest campaign is a theatrical series of spots that follow a linear story of a ruined birthday cake and how DoorDash saved the day. The three-act campaign was created by Toronto-based agency Hard Work Club and produced by Spy Films. The first two spots debuted on Jan. 10, with the third spot set to appear during coverage of the NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 18. All three spots will run throughout the game. Wavemaker handled the media for the work. TBWA appoints Nissan creative leads TBWA\Chiat\Day New York named Barney Goldberg and Mike Blanch co-executive creative directors for its U.S. Nissan United account. Both will report to TBWA\Chiat\Day New York’s Chief Creative Officer, Amy Ferguson. Goldberg joins from Innocean USA, where he was most recently executive creative director on the agency’s Hyundai account for which he worked on multiple Super Bowl spots. Blanch takes on the position after most recently serving as a group creative director at TBWA New York. These are newly created roles for the account, which has been with TBWA for 37 years, according to the agency. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Just briefly Skincare and sunscreen brand Supergoop appointed Digitas as its media agency of record following a review. The agency will focus on paid search, paid social, display, video, retail strategy, influencer and data and analysis. The work will be led out of Digitas’ New York office with additional support from its Boston headquarters. It was not clear which agency previously held the account. Deloitte Digital acquired software engineering and digital solutions company Giant Machines. “The Giant Machines product incubation and solutions services will scale our Deloitte Engineering and Deloitte Digital capabilities to help our clients accelerate product delivery and shape the next generation of innovation,” said Tim Juravich, principal of Deloitte Consulting. Atlanta-based agency Chemistry appointed Christofer Peterson as its chief people officer, where she will oversee the agency’s people and culture department. She most recently worked at Dagger for three years as the agency’s chief people officer. The Chemistry role was previously held by Christine Iannucci.

Agency news you need to know this week

Featured Stories