Wolverine Worldwide, which markets footwear brands such as Merrell, Saucony, Keds, Sperry and Hush Puppies, has named Havas Media as its global media agency of record following a four-month review process.

Wolverine, which owns 13 brands in total, had previously worked with multiple media partners across its portfolio and its largest brand, Merrell, had previously worked with iProspect. Wolverine was looking to integrate its media spending under one partner to create “tighter connections and efficiencies,” said Janice Tennant, Merrell's chief marketing officer.

“We needed integrated thinking across the portfolio,” added Benjamin Aronson, VP of consumer marketing for Wolverine Worldwide. “How are we maximizing opportunities if we are spending with one media partner for different brands, how are we really making sure we are optimizing those spends and the work? And then we needed integration globally when it came to data sophistication and integrity, We needed a partner who could help us link that so that we could have better insights in real-time to make decisions.”

Havas' scope will include a strong focus on the U.S., Europe, Middle East & Africa and Canada.

Wolverine has been increasing its advertising spending over the past few years. Advertising expenses were $195.4 million in 2021, $135.6 million in 2020 and $119.4 million in 2019, according to its annual financial filing. 

Creative approach

One aspect that stood out about Havas was its “creative” approach to media, according to Tennant, which was a crucial part of what the company was seeking during the process. The two “weaknesses” the company was looking to address, Aronson said, were finding an agency that could provide real-time insights and strategic guidance.

“We wanted someone who can help stretch the creative way that we bring our programs to life in unexpected ways,” said Tennant. “There are only so many ways you can hit the consumer with a display ad.”

These creative media approaches aim to build brand equity and an emotional connection with consumers, according to Tennant.

“We didn't want to just drive sort of these transactional relationships with our consumers,” Tennant added. “We needed a media partner who could help us understand how we can do both and how do we do that in a seamless way, bring the savvy [approach] to drive greater conversion and transactions for our business, but at the same time help us find interesting and engaging ways to connect with our consumers in sort unexpected places in relevant, contextual ways that gets them to remember our brand and come back to our brand.”

“It was a really powerful process where we got into the weeds on digital, we got into the weeds on forecasting and global optimization, and we got into the weeds on creativity,” Aronson said.

To help with its creative media ideas during the pitch, Havas utilized its content partnerships team as well as its PR unit Havas Formula, which had already been working with Merrell, Greg Walsh, North America CEO of Havas Media confirmed. 

Shopping shift

“They tried to test all the agency muscles and actually one of the meetings was quite specifically dedicated to creative media ideas,” said Thomas Minc, portfolio lead at Havas Media. “We always say creative media ideas and not creative ideas because we are not substitutes for the creative agencies. We are not developing ads or taglines, but we are trying to come up with ways to partner with publishers or to use new platforms or use all media types like out of home in a more innovative way.”

Despite posting second-quarter revenue growth of 12.9% last month, Wolverine trimmed its full-year 2022 revenue guidance to a range between $2.74 billion and $2.79 billion, down from its previous estimate of $2.77 billion to $2.85 billion, with Wolverine CEO Brendan Hoffman citing issues around inventory, foreign exchange rate pressures, and supply chain delays. This follows the trend of other apparel and footwear companies like Under Armour and Crocs, which also recently adjusted their full-year revenue predictions.

E-commerce revenue for Wolverine was down 7% on an organic basis as compared to the same time last year, Hoffman noted during the call.

“We believe this is largely attributable to a change in shopping behavior from what occurred during the pandemic, with consumers now partially reverting back to in-store shopping and shifting towards experiential spending,” Hoffman said.

Moving forward, success will be predicated on Merrell and other Wolverine brands understanding the “shopper journey,” according to Tennant, who says it all begins with a digital framework. 

“It's really important that as we're thinking about the type of people who are coming into our categories, [we think about] what's their consumer journey and therefore what's the content we need to provide along that,” Tennant said.

“I'll give a prime example during the outdoor boom that's been happening during COVID and even right now where more people are going outdoors we’re seeing a lot of new outdoor hikers who don't know a lot about what's the right footwear equipment to use. So, you'll see in a lot of our media plans, really thinking about those starting places about the information as we get closer to, how do we push them into retail to make sure that they size themselves and get into the right footwear.”

Havas’s first work for the brand is expected to debut this month.