Financial services holding company U.S. Bancorp–which is the parent company of America’s fifth largest commercial bank U.S. Bank National Association–will no longer work with New York-based GlobalHue on its multicultural business.
Today a client spokesperson reaffirmed its dedication to “serving diverse and multicultural customers,” adding, “We have a tremendous amount of work underway to be the most trusted choice for these customers.”
The rep wrote, “Because these communities are so important to us, we are assessing our multicultural agency relationships and have agreed to exit our relationship with GlobalHue.”
U.S. Bank does not plan to launch a multicultural review. The spokesperson said that the company would be “taking a different approach [and] speaking with a number of agencies to support our initiatives” moving forward. The agency won the business after a review in September of 2013, and U.S. Bank CMO Jennifer Powell said that the shop “not only understands the multicultural market, but also understands the ever-changing identity of our customers today.”
The last big news from GlobalHue came more than a year ago when FIAT Chrysler parted ways with CEO and founder Don Coleman’s shop, which had been AOR for the Jeep brand for more than five years and created its 2014 Super Bowl spot starring Bob Dylan. At the time Chrysler said that it would not choose another agency of record for Jeep, but that account eventually went to DDB after the client sent portions of its business to the Omnicom shop, FCB and several other agencies.
After the Jeep account left, GlobalHue streamlined its operations and moved its headquarters from Detroit to New York. It then promptly announced the hiring of three new creative leaders, none of whom are currently working at the agency.
U.S. Bank named Carmichael Lynch as its creative AOR last year after approximately 18 months with BSSP. This January, the client launched a rebranding campaign led by Carmichael, its sister PR firm Spong and fellow Minneapolis shop Little and Company.
We have heard of unspecified internal changes occurring at GlobalHue in recent weeks, but reps have not yet responded to our emails.