KeyBank appointed The Richards Group as its creative, media and digital agency following a review, Adweek reports. Consultancy The Bedford Group handled the review, which also included Mithun (which is now rebranding as McCann Minneapolis), who worked with the brand on a campaign that launched last summer.
The Richards Group formed a dedicated division to handle the account, with a digital campaign expected to launch in the second quarter. “This is an opportunity to be bold—to break through the usual conventions of bank advertising,” said The Richards Group principal David Hall, who is leading the new division.
“We took some wise counsel from (agency principal) Stan Richards in making our decision,” added Tom Wennerberg, executive vice president of marketing at KeyBank. “Stan advised us during the review to hire an agency, not a campaign. And that’s what we did. The Richards Group as an agency, and especially the team that will be working with us, has a long and wonderful history of being true partners.”
KeyBank spent $6.5 million on domestic ads in the first three quarters of 2015, according to Kantar Media.