Rent-A-Center And 'Agency Partner' Issue Creative RFP

Rent-A-Center, which shifted the media portion of its $25 million account to Aegis' Carat from Havas' Euro Retail in March, is set to send out an RFP for a creative agency this week. But the review is a bit unusual—it's being run by a shop that has close ties to client management and will continue to develop brand positioning and creative.Spending on the new account will be around $3 million, according to David Kirwan, president of 2-year-old Razor Competitive Edge in Addison, Texas, which will also handle creative along with the client. Kirwan added that the creative account could grow. "Their budgets have grown significantly over the years," he said. "It's a national platform with network TV visibility. " Kirwan, who founded the agency that became Euro Retail, described his current shop as "a new type of agency partner." "We help manage the relationship with best-in-class specialists," he said. Agencies receiving the RFP will have experience in the rent-to-own or retail category, Kirwan said. Euro Retail will be among those receiving the questionnaire, which is due back in mid-May, with a cut to a short list and a final decision coming in June, he added.Earlier this year, RCE guided Plano, Texas-based Rent-A-Center's search for a new media agency, which led to the hiring of Carat in Dallas. The account had been bundled at Euro Retail in Plano until that point. Losing the account—its second largest—led Euro Retail to lay off 10 employees, including chief marketing officer Michael Johnson, sources said. Euro Retail officials declined to confirm the layoffs.Kirwan founded The Forbes Group, the predecessor of Euro Retail, back in 1991. That agency was sold to the Brann Group in 1999 and became part of the Euro RSCG network four years later. Kirwan was working at what was known as BrannForbes in 1999 when the agency won Rent-A-Center. When Ann Davids, Rent-A-Center's vice president of marketing and advertising, decided to unbundle the advertising and marketing accounts earlier this year, she sought out Kirwan, citing the trust that had developed when they worked together earlier. "They were instrumental in the selection of Carat as our new media buying service and will support the RFP process for the creative agency," Davids said.The new creative agency will be asked to help boost same-store sales while the client continues an acquisition binge that has provided the company with 2,866 stores and projected annual revenues of $2.4 billion. While overall revenue rose 3 percent in the first quarter of 2005, same-store sales fell 5 percent, according to the company's financial statement. The decision to drop Euro Retail as the sole advertising agency followed an earlier drop in same-store sales in the fourth quarter of 2004."We are pleased with the strategic direction provided by Euro Retail but are fielding the review to make sure that we have captured the most dynamic concept for communicating that strategy to customers," Davids said. Euro Retail's most recent campaign for the client broke in March of this year. Spots seek an emotional response from viewers by depicting real-life situations in which Rent-A-Center comes into play.

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Rent-A-Center And 'Agency Partner' Issue Creative RFP

Richard Williamson

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Richard Williamson