10002: PepsiCo Hearts Omnicom.

Advertising Age reported PepsiCo consolidated its agency roster, dumping about 100 mostly smaller, non-Omnicom shops. Gee, what a shocker. Now all PepsiCo pitches—or more accurately, PepsiCo switches—will be staged between Omnicom agencies. In other words, don’t expect the food and beverage company to draw any interest from producers at The Pitch.

PepsiCo Completes Agency Reductions

Mostly Smaller, Non-Omnicom Shops Among Those Eliminated

By Natalie Zmuda

PepsiCo’s North America beverage division has completed the downsizing of its agency roster, eliminating many of the smaller shops.

A spokeswoman confirmed that the beverage group is working with about 50 agencies, after letting various contracts expire. She said the moves are intended to strengthen the company’s relationships with Omnicom Group, the ad-holding company with which Pepsi has long been aligned.

Various executives close to PepsiCo said the cuts were largely focused on weeding out smaller specialty shops that had been layered in over the years. Its move is counter to recent trends. Several large marketers, such as Kraft and Unilever, have increasingly entrusted smaller shops with bits and pieces of their brand portfolios.

Simon Lowden, chief marketing officer at PepsiCo’s Beverages, told Ad Age in February that the number of agencies the company works with had ballooned in the past two to three years.

“It’s grown because the agenda has gotten more complex and busier,” Mr. Lowden said at the time. But “when we look back on things, the vast majority of the work is still done by our core agencies.”

The spokeswoman identified those “core” agencies as Omnicom Group networks TBWA/Chiat/Day, BBDO and DDB, as well as Omnicom shop TracyLocke and Genesco, a sports-marketing agency with ties to TracyLocke. She added that an agency with a contract that was allowed to expire could be called on again down the road, if an opportunity arose where that agency was the right fit.

About 100 shops, or 65% of the division’s partner agencies, were removed. Interpublic Group of Cos.’ Huge, which did work related to the Refresh Project, for example, is no longer working with the brand. MDC Partners’ Anomaly, which had been slated to handle the relaunch of Pure Leaf, a premium tea brand, stopped working with PepsiCo months ago, according to an agency spokesman.

Independent Ruder Finn is no longer working with the beverage division, though a spokesman said it continues to handle a corporate recycling initiative. One Omnicom shop that’s not benefiting from the moves is Porter Novelli. The agency, which said it has handled projects for Pepsi’s nutrition group, no longer works with the beverage division.

But certain non-Omnicom shops, such as Dentsu’s Firstborn, WPP’s VML, Interpublic’s Weber Shandwick and independent Olson PR appear to have either retained or added to their PepsiCo business. PepsiCo declined to name any of the agencies that were cut.

Calling the approach “need-based, “Mr. Lowden said the roster hadn’t been pared based on a goal to have a certain number of agencies on each brand. Instead, various brand teams were told to focus on partnerships and programs aligned with business objectives.

The consolidation, announced at an investor meeting earlier this year, was billed as a bid to increase efficiency and shift into brand-building money allocated for things such as agency fees. The company has also said it would spend an extra $500 million to $600 million this year to advertise its brands, with a focus on North America.

Contributing: Alexandra Bruell, Kunur Patel

9939: The Hypocrisy Of Diversity.

Kraft is committed to building a culture where talented individuals can contribute their best. Kraft’s agencies have an individual culture—White.


PepsiCo is committed to diversity in everything we do. Provided everything comes from Omnicom.


Sprint believes in inclusion. Team Sprint, not so much.

9894: Quaker Oats Man On The Move.

Advertising Age reported PepsiCo shifted its Quaker Oats business to a new agency sans review. It’s actually another example of Corporate Cultural Collusion perpetrated by Omnicom. Give the holding company credit for apparently having locked PepsiCo into a long-term contract, as evidenced by the Quaker Oats Man’s migration from Element 79 to Goodby, Silverstein & Partners to Juniper Park to Energy BBDO—all shops within the Omnicom stable. It’s only a matter of time before the brand goes to Fathom Communications.

PepsiCo Shifts Quaker Creative to Energy BBDO

Move Comes Under New Quaker CMO Justin Lambeth

By Maureen Morrison

PepsiCo has shifted creative duties for its Quaker portfolio of foods and snacks to Omnicom Group’s EnergyBBDO, Ad Age has learned.

The move, which came without a review, will shift the business handled by BBDO sibling Juniper Park in Toronto to Energy BBDO, the Chicago office of the BBDO global network.

Asked what was behind the agency change, Quaker spokeswoman Candace Mueller said, “As part of PepsiCo’s strategic investment and productivity initiatives, Quaker Foods & Snacks North America is moving to one global creative agency, Chicago-based Energy BBDO. Based on Energy BBDO‘s expertise for setting global strategy and developing breakthrough creative thinking, we believe they are the right agency to help Quaker accelerate our brand positioning worldwide. We sincerely appreciate the work that Juniper Park has done for the Quaker business and thank them for all of their efforts.”

The news comes on the heels of Quaker’s hiring a new top marketer. In January it named Justin Lambeth—a former Frito-Lay VP who led marketing for brands such as Lay’s, Tostitos and Sun Chips—CMO.

The move is a blow to Juniper Park, once a darling among Pepsi ‘s agency roster. Losing the Quaker business is another piece of bad news for the shop, which just a few months ago also lost PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay Sun Chips and Lay’s brands to Energy BBDO.

At that time, the agency still had Quaker as well as work for PepsiCo’s global nutrition group. But with the Quaker shift, Ms. Mueller said that “Energy BBDO will be responsible for setting Quaker’s global strategy and developing a global ad campaign in partnership with the Global Nutrition Group.”

It’s unclear whether Juniper Park will do any additional work for the global nutrition group. Frito-Lay was a founding client when Juniper Park opened its doors in 2007, and the agency picked up Quaker in October 2009.

PepsiCo last year spent about $53.6 million on measured media for Quaker, according to Kantar. It spent about $56 million in 2010, a sharp drop from that $80.5 million it spent in 2009.

The PepsiCo business on the whole probably accounted for most of Juniper Park’s business. Its other clients include Virgin Mobile, Delta Hotels and Canadian media company Corus Entertainment. Asked about the shop’s viability, a BBDO spokesman said that the Juniper Park “continues to operate in Canada as part of the BBDO Worldwide network.”

Energy BBDO has benefited from its sibling’s losses and has picked up activity on the new-business circuit. Last year, Energy BBDO picked up a sizable portion of the global SC Johnson account that was formerly at DraftFCB.

PepsiCo, which has a relationship with Omnicom Group, is known to play musical chairs with agencies in the Omnicom family, regularly shifting business from one shop to another. Quaker, for example, has shifted hands many times in the past five years. In 2008, PepsiCo handed Goodby Silverstein & Partners the Quaker account after it had been at Element, an Omnicom agency formed primarily to handle PepsiCo’s business. Then in 2009, PepsiCo moved the Quaker account to Juniper Park, and now it’s parked at a new agency once again.

PepsiCo has been trimming its roster of agencies. Last month, it said on the beverage side of its business that it would cut ties with more than 100 agencies.

9804: Taco Bell’s Lazy Mexican Food.

Taco Bell is launching another lazy menu item—Doritos Locos Tacos. Like the Beefy Crunch Burrito featuring Fritos corn chips, the latest innovation essentially combines junk food products under the PepsiCo banner. Still waiting for the Cheetos Chalupas or SunChips Chimichangas. Hell, they ought to just pump all the PepsiCo shit through a blender and serve it as a Smoothie Supreme.

9802: Propelling Shit On TV.

Last May, MultiCultClassics noted a clear case of Corporate Cultural Collusion involving Omnicom and PepsiCo, whereby the Propel Zero account shifted from one sister agency to another under the guise of formal reviews. The incumbent agency—Goodby, Silverstein & Partners—was ultimately replaced by the virtually unknown Fathom. This Propel Zero commercial from the new AOR is awful, and hardly on the caliber of what one might expect from GS&P. In fact, it appears to be a poor adman’s version of a campaign created years ago for the brand by another Omnicom agency.

9668: Frito Bandito Burrito.

Considering that Pepsico hatched Taco Bell parent company Yum! Brands and also own Fritos parent company Frito-Lay Brands, there’s something inherently lazy about the Beefy Crunch Burrito. Look for Beefy Doritos Gorditas and Beefy Cheetos Chalupas soon.