A handful of finalists are scheduled to present to BNY Mellon in its global advertising review next week, sources said.
Total account revenue is estimated at $5-7 million. The full list of finalists could not be ascertained.
The review comes six months after former General Electric marketing leader Judy Hu joined the global financial services company as chief marketing officer. Hu is conducting the review—covering all divisions of BNY Mellon—herself.
Creative incumbent Doremus referred calls to Hu, who did not respond to Adweek inquiries. Doremus, which has worked on the business since 2011, is not defending, according to sources.
Hu was most recently global executive director of advertising and branding at GE, but also has worked at General Motors and, on the agency side, at Leo Burnett.
In her 10 years at GE, Hu helped modernize the image of the company. She oversaw high-profile campaigns like GE’s “Imagination at Work” and "Ecoimagination,” which emphasized GE’s commitment to developing green technologies. She left the company last year.
At BNY Mellon, Hu is tasked with raising the profile of a company formed in 2007 by the merger of The Bank of New York and Mellon Financial Corp. In the view of one source, the company has an awareness problem along the lines of, “We’re the biggest bank you don’t know.”
In January—before Hu arrived—BNY Mellon launched a new global brand campaign that highlighted its capabilities as “The Investments Company for the World” and positioned it as a resource for clients at every stage of their financial lifecycle.
