In a story that somehow slipped through the cracks here yesterday, Nestle USA shrunk its digital agency roster to eight shops, following a lengthy review which the company launched in the spring to “streamline the agency roster and increase the impact of the company’s digital efforts,” AdAge reported.
The review covered Nestle USA brands, excluding Purina, Gerber and Nestle Waters, which are part of a separate Nestle division. Agencies left standing are 360i, Deep Focus, Huge, Grey, Resource/Ammirati, Threshold Interactive, SmithBrothers and Swift.
360i is a new addition to the roster, and will be responsible for the Skinny Cow, Coffee Mate and Lean Cuisine brands. Deep Focus will cover Tombstone, Edy’s and Dreyer’s ice cream brands, Nesquick and Ovaltine; as well as the Nestle Waters brands, which the agency won separately. Resource/Ammirati will add Nestle Tollhouse to its list of Nestle brands, which already included Digiorno and California Pizza Kitchen frozen pizzas. Independent agency Swift will be responsible for Stouffer’s and Outshine, while fellow indie shop Threshold Interactive will handle work on Butterfinger and Hot Pockets. Huge will cover Nescafe, Nescafe Classico and Dolce Gusto. Grey, which AdAge points out is “the only traditional creative shop on the newly trimmed roster” will handle digital work on Haagen Dazs.
As you may recall, Nestle just last month hired FCB Chicago for a corporate brand assignment repositioning the company as a “recognized and trusted food and beverage, nutrition, health and wellness company” following an RFP issued in June.