Kona Beer pitches to MLB fans and J&J taps MDC Partners and Stagwell shops for Lubriderm: Agency Brief

Kona Beer gets called up to the majors Hawaiian-born craft brew Kona is taking the mound once again by airing new TV spots that “encourage baseball fans and mainlanders everywhere to make time for the good things in life.” The spots, by the beer brand’s creative agency of record, Duncan Channon, are a continuation of the “Dear Mainland” campaign that first began airing in select markets such as San Diego and Orlando in 2014.“With the start of Major League Baseball season, along with responsible reopening of restaurants and bars, it’s an ideal time to reconnect with beer drinkers through these entertaining brand spots,” Cindy Wang, senior director of brand marketing of Kona Brewing Co., said in a statement. In 2019, Kona made the biggest marketing play in its 25-plus year history by running its first national TV ads during March Madness. Like previous ads, the new spots feature two Hawaiian locals, dubbed the “Bruddahs.” The one spot catered towards baseball fans shows the Bruddahs on the beach next to their own bullpen phone so they can call in a relief pitcher when needed, which happens to be a pitcher of Kona Big Wave Beer. The other two ads poke fun at the “Sunday Scaries” and people who are obsessed with their phones. “There’s no one better than two laid-back brothers from Hawaii to help us laugh about those things and suggest that having a Kona beer might help us find a bit more levity in our lives,” says Parker Channon, creative director for the campaign. The new spots are launching in more than 25 regional markets across broadcast TV, digital, and paid social. Doner takes J&J’s Lubriderm account with partner Code and Theory MDC Partners’ Doner and its Stagwell Group sidekick Code and Theory continue making inroads at Johnson & Johnson. Beyond recently winning J&J’s Johnson’s Baby and Aveeno Baby brands, Doner also has won J&J’s Lubriderm adult skincare account, the company confirmed. J&J didn’t confirm Code and Theory’s involvement, but people familiar with the matter did. MDC and Stagwell, both led by Mark Penn, are set to merge in a deal expected to close this quarter. Lubriderm hasn’t gotten nearly the marketing attention J&J skincare siblings Neutrogena, Aveeno or even Clean & Clear do, with almost no measured media support the past two years, per Kantar. But that’s likely to change given the new creative assignment. Doner and Code and Theory joined the J&J roster with their 2019 win of the Listerine, Tylenol and Zyrtec accounts, then won the baby brands earlier this month after quietly picking up Lubriderm in January. Under managing partner Penn, Stagwell grew its reach within big clients like Procter & Gamble Co. after getting a foot in the door. MDC has been doing the same at J&J since Penn became the holding company’s chairman-CEO in 2019. Another move from CPB to WorkinProgress WorkInProgress has hired creative director duo Kelly McCormick and D’Arcy O’Neill, who joined earlier this year. The team will head up the agency’s Domino’s partnership, after the account moved to the independent shop in January, following the brand’s 13 year stint with MDC’s CPB. When the change was announced last year, Domino’s Chief Marketing Officer Art D’Elia said the pizza company’s issue wasn’t with the creative work from MDC but rather the holding company model in general. “I really feel that the independent agency model gives us more flexibility and less distractions,” D’Elia said. The duo joined from CPB Boulder where together they worked on the Domino’s account and crafted executions like the Ferris Bueller tracker shot-for-shot remake, launched the first ever pizza wedding registry, and the “Paving for Pizza” campaign. “I had the privilege of working with Kelly and D’Arcy while at CPB years ago,” Matt Talbot, chief creative officer of WIP said in a statement. “I’ve followed their successes from not very afar and am so excited to see the work that comes from our shared vision of creating bold, action-based work that generates true business results.” A&L celebrates its roots with WFH Merch Richmond-based independent agency Arts & Letters, didn’t let COVID restrictions stop it from celebrating what it’s calling its fourth annual “Name Day,” which is the day the agency was officially founded. The agency’s 176 employees were given the day off and each employee received a “WFH jargon starter pack” which included tongue-in-cheek agency merch. One example is a blanket that jokingly had the locations of “A&L’s Worldwide Network” which are actually the locations of the bedrooms, home offices, basements and many other places A&L employees worked from in the past year. Normally the agency makes Name Day “swag” coupled with theme centered events, but hasn’t been able to for the past two years due to the pandemic. Other merch includes: A "Sorry, go ahead... mug," a "No, you go..." tumbler; a "sounds good" hat, a "We'll figure it out tomorrow" corkscrew and a "What do you think?" print. YML CEO donates 50k to India relief YML's CEO, Ashish Toshniwal, who is originally from Kolkata, committed to personally donating $50,000 to non-profit Give India to support efforts in fighting the coronavirus. The announcement was shared on Toshniwal’s and YML’s Linkedin profiles. Toshniwal, who also mentioned his family and the over 200 people who are a part of YML’s India team, implored his peers in Silicon Valley and beyond, to join in support as he would donate $100 for every share of his post, up to $50,000. “In a few places in India, the death rate has climbed so high from COVID that crematoriums have run out of space and dead bodies have been abandoned,” Toshniwal said in his post. “To my colleagues and friends in Silicon Valley and beyond — this is a critical moment for us to help however we can.” Family First Saatchi & Saatchi launched Saatchi Family, which is an initiative that aims to support parents at every stage of their career in order to affect a positive shift in culture for working parents within the industry. In the initial phase, Saatchi Family will focus on working parents and working moms in particular, by expanding the agency’s existing policies to cover the entire parenthood journey. In the next phase, the program will evolve to provide support and resources for all caregivers. As part of the initiative, the agency will be investing £350,000 as part of a childcare fund dedicated to helping relieve childcare pressures, such as fully paid leave for any parents experiencing miscarriage (at any stage during pregnancy). Saatchi & Saatchi will also provide access to support for partners and close family members. “The first thing we needed to do was listen to our people,” Sam Hawkey, CEO at Saatchi & Saatchi says. “Then we looked at what we should be doing immediately, what proper systemic impact we could deliver with the right time and money, and then we looked at delivering the impossible.” Enterprise drives forward with second AOR announcement this week Enterprise holdings named UM as its media agency-of-record for its portfolio of brands including Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car. UM will take on all media strategy, planning, buying, data and analytics duties for the car rental brand across its primary global markets in North America and Europe. “It has never been more critical to evolve and innovate as we look to the future, and UM’s data-driven capabilities will advance our goals of building out our marketing and technology solutions to support our diverse brands and business portfolio,” Chris Almeida, VP of global marketing and digital of Enterprise Holdings, says in a statement. This is the second agency of record announcement for Enterprise this week. Earlier in the week the St. Louis, Missouri-based company named Ogilvy as its first agency of record to lead global brand strategy. Just briefly Amsterdam-based independent We Are Pi hired Jolande van Helbergen as its talent director. She joins after 13 years at Wieden+Kennedy, most recently as director of people and culture in New York. Global building materials company James Hardie has tapped Ogilvy for its global marketing campaign. The campaign will include TV spots, programmatic digital, social media, PR. influencer and dynamic media partnerships. Global e-commerce performance agency Labelium announced two leadership additions in its Toronto office. Alejandra Guerra was promoted to managing director and hired Jamie Kokiw, previously director of sales at Silver Crystal Sports, as director of business development. To address language deprivation and help bridge the communication barrier between the deaf and the hearing, creative studio Hello Monday has partnered with the American Society for Deaf Children to create Fingerspelling.xyz, a browser-based app that uses a webcam and machine learning to analyze your hand shapes so you can learn to sign the American sign language alphabet correctly. Twinlab Consolidation Corp., a health and wellness company, has chosen to partner with Circus Maximus for a range of responsibilities across brand strategy, marketing, ecommerce, and media buying. The agency will focus on some of the company’s top products, Reserveage Nutrition and ResVitále, as well as its namesake brand, Twinlab. Colle McVoy has been selected as lead agency for Credit Sesame, a consumer focused credit wellness platform. The agency will direct strategy, creative, brand experience and design to support the company’s rapid expansion plans. Contributing: Jack Neff

Kona Beer pitches to MLB fans, and J&J taps MDC Partners and Stagwell shops for Lubriderm: Agency Brief

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