Post Consumer Brands has named Barkley its agency-of-record across four of its cereals: Honey Bunches of Oats, Great Grains, Honeycomb and the Pebbles family of brands (Fruity, Cocoa and Marshmellow Fruity Pebbles), following a review managed by Boston firm Pile and Co.
The companies say the partnership kicks off in January, 2021. The independent agency will handle strategy and creative for the four cereal brands, mainly out of its Kansas City headquarters.
San Francisco-based Argonaut previously handled the Honey Bunches of Oats business while various small shops worked on the other three brands, according to one person close to the business. The appointment of Barkley marks a consolidation of Post's flagship cereal brands with one ad agency.
"If you think about the audiences for those brands, they're all very unique and different," Barkley Chief Growth Officer Jason Parks says. "What's interesting about this [assignment] was this integration [of advertising] of all their core brands—from Fruity Pebbles, a kid brand, to Great Grains."
Parks says Barkley was eager to rise to the "challenge" Post put forth of modernizing its Honey Bunches of Oats, Great Grains, Honeycomb and Pebbles brands as well as finding the connections between all of their unique audiences.