Venables Bell & Partners Wins Creative AOR Duties for Sheraton and Westin Hotels

By Patrick Coffee 

Starwood Hotels & Resorts has completed its creative agency review by choosing Venables Bell & Partners to handle its Sheraton and Westin brands.

The client chose to go to AdAge with the news first and has not given us a quote regarding its decision despite the fact that we have quite literally been contacting its PR department all day for confirmation.

In February, the parent company issued two RFPs to a select group of agencies including Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Deutsch and Havas but ended up choosing Venables, according to sources familiar with the matter.

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This news arrives following a win streak of sorts for the independent, San Francisco-based shop, which recently launched its first campaigns for new clients Blue Moon, Playstation Vue and MillerCoors’ Leinenkugels (the latter of which was pulled by the client). According to a January Adweek profile piece, the agency boasted a 70 percent pitch rate for 2015; it also earned a good bit of attention for a “stirring” Audi Super Bowl spot set to the late David Bowie’s sci-fi classic “Starman.”

The decision also follows this month’s shareholder vote to approve the proposed merger of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and Marriott International, Inc. in a $13 billion-plus deal. If the contract is approved by regulators, it would create the world’s largest hotel company just brands like Airbnb continue to threaten the traditional travel industry business model.

VB&P representatives also chose not to comment on the news. The agency’s first work for its newest client should debut over the summer.

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