Today Lowe’s Home Improvement confirmed that it has parted with chief marketing officer Marci Grebstein, who held that title since November 2015 after serving as the chain’s VP of advertising.
This morning, the company sent out a wire release announcing that former SVP of merchandising Jocelyn Wong would be replacing Grebstein and reporting directly to chief customer officer Michael P. McDermott. Wong spent three years as CMO of the Family Dollar chain before joining Lowe’s in late 2015, just before Grebstein got the promotion.
The news comes fourth months after Lowe’s launched its first media review since 2005; the chain spends around $320 million on paid media annually.
Omnicom currently handles both media (OMD) and creative (BBDO) for America’s second-largest home improvement retailer. Spokespeople for both agencies deferred to the client for comment on the news, but we hear from one party close to the matter that Grebstein was fired, that the company did not issue an internal memo prior to announcing her successor via the newswires, and that the change was not expected by any of the agencies currently competing for Lowe’s media business.
In her new role, Wong will be in charge of all the company’s advertising and, presumably, determine the winner of the review.
According to another party, the review has entered its final stages and pits a division of Publicis’ Starcom against an unnamed Omnicom agency that is not OMD. A Lowe’s spokesperson stated only that the decision has not yet been made.