Edible, formerly Edible Arrangements, has selected Knoxville-based Tombras as its creative and media agency of record following a review that started last year and resumed this spring, following a pandemic-induced pause.

Edible met with several agencies as part of the review, including Doner, according to a person close to the situation. Doner referred to Edible for comment.

Edible was seeking a partnership to help capitalize on last year’s momentum, where U.S. sales were up 70% from April to June following consecutive years of double-digit sales declines, according to a Franchise Times article posted in January. Edible had spent $13 million on total media and $9 million on TV in 2020, according to a report by Kantar.

“Tombras’ vast experience in bridging creativity and data makes them the perfect AOR for Edible,” Somia Farid Silber, VP of eCommerce at Edible told Ad Age. “After a record-breaking sales year, we are excited to use the momentum we have to continue transforming both Edible’s strong digital presence and retail experience. We look forward to continuing our brand evolution with Tombras to make Edible a one-stop-shop for all food gifting and treating needs.”

Tombras’ first campaign, for the 20-plus-year-old company, which will consist of national broadcast, OTT, and digital advertising, will focus on making Edible top of mind for consumers when it comes to everyday gifting.

The pandemic provided a tailwind for Edible, but as the country seemingly turns the corner, Edible has managed to hold onto 90-95% of its sales gains from last year, says Scott Wakeman, executive VP of operations for Edible.

“Edible has always been iconic for the big gifting occasions, but we’ve greatly expanded our offerings and want to let people know that we’ve now got products for every occasion ... and even for no occasion at all, when you want to just treat yourself,” Wakeman says.

In recent years, the company, which has over 1,000 locations across the country, started to debut new offerings like its hemp-derived CBD product line, Incredible Edibles, which includes products like smoothies and chocolate-dipped fruit.

Prior to this partnership, Edible had been working with a number of agencies on a project basis. In 2019, the same year Edible Brands became the umbrella name for the company, innovation agency T3 was brought on for a digital transformation project to re-imagine the brand’s customer experience across all its touch points, such as the website, app, in-store and social media. In 2018, Havas NY helped launched the company’s Edible Donuts product on National Donut Day.

"This win is more special than normal for us because our agency's ethos is connecting data and creativity for business results, which we do best when given both creative and media,” says Dooley Tombras, president of Tombras. “Our favorite type of win is creative and media. And it's doubly sweet to do what we do best with a family-owned brand."

Edible is the latest in a string of recent account wins for Tombras. In February, Tombras was named media AOR for the American Cancer Society, beating out incumbent Zenith. In May, Mozilla tapped the agency to be its social media agency of record and in the same month, it released its first campaign for retail chain Big Lots, of which Tombras is the company's creative agency. Tombras is also the creative AOR for Pernod Ricard’s American whiskey portfolio and released a campaign for Jefferson’s bourbon this week.