JPMorgan Chase confirmed today that it has chosen VaynerMedia to handle its social media business.
A client spokesperson told us that the banking giant has added Vayner to its agency roster but declined to elaborate on whether a review preceded the win or whether Vayner is now officially its social media agency of record.
This news marks the latest shift for a company that now works with Droga5 on its creative campaigns.
Chase sent its digital work to Publicis‘ Razorfish and Rosetta in a 2013 review that saw four holding companies battle for the business. mcgarrybowen had been the client’s agency of record since 2004 and also handled much of its digital business even after the Publicis decision, but that changed last summer when the company sent most of its creative work to Droga5 without a review. At the time, mcgarrybowen retained the corporate portion of the account while Saatchi & Saatchi handled payments (read: credit cards) and campaigns related to Chase’s partnership with Apple Music.
Chase then ended its relationships with those two shops, most recently sending the payment work to Droga in February before that agency’s first full campaign debuted last month. None of these changes involved RFPs or formal reviews.
The current status of Publicis’ ROAR, which was formed to handle Chase digital work and later planned to partner with Saatchi on that part of the account, is unclear as is the size of the business won by Vayner.
It’s also worth noting that Chase–which generally prefers not to publicly discuss its agency partnerships–has never, to our knowledge, officially named a social media AOR. And while the client spokesperson did not clarify when the company had begun working with Vayner, this Cinco de Mayo Snapchat promo does feel a bit familiar.
When current CMO Kristin Lemkau took the reins in January 2014, she told American Banker that the company planned a “digital, Twitter push” to combat recent negative headlines. Last year, a NetBase study found Chase to be the “most-talked-about banking brand” on social.
VaynerMedia representatives have not yet responded to our requests for comment.