Mountain View-based Symantec Corporation has awarded its global creative and brand strategy duties to Grey San Francisco for its anti-virus brand, Norton. In addition, Grey SF will join forces with sister WPP shop Mediacom to handle global media buying/planning/strategy duties for both Symantec and Norton. Regarding Symantec’s decision, VP of brand, digital and advertising Alix Hart says, “As part of Symantec’s company-wide transformation, we are changing the way we market our brands, and have sought a creative partner to help strengthen our brand messaging and ensure we are communicating our brand value propositions in an integrated fashion around the world. Grey’s creativity, strategic thinking, strong digital capabilities and deep understanding of our Norton brand were unbeatable when coupled with Mediacom’s media management sophistication, scale and buying power.”
No word on who else participated in the review, but the Norton biz was previously handled by Leo Burnett. Expect first work from Grey SF for Norton to launch in spring of this year. As far as Symantec creative duties go as a whole, fellow Bay Area shop Godfrey Q retains duties for the brand, which includes identity and naming.