Seattle-based Brooks Running has selected Huge as its integrated agency of record after a review. Austin, Texas, agency McGarrah Jessee was incumbent on the account and was invited to defend.
“We are proud of the work we accomplished together during a period of record global growth for the company,” McGarrah Jessee marketing director Heather Snow wrote in a statement to Adweek. ” … We were asked to participate in a pitch to continue the partnership; we chose to withdraw.”
According to a source familiar with the matter, 180LA was among the agencies that participated in the review process.
Huge will be tasked with handling marketing, creative, brand strategy, positioning and digital marketing as well as global activations for the running brand.
“Huge was immediately able to capture the ‘Run Happy’ spirit of Brooks,” Brooks CMO Melanie Allen told Adweek. “As a brand focused solely on the run, it is incredibly important that our advertising agency of record understand the heart and soul of our brand and that they are able to capture that spirit in a way that resonates directly with runners.”
Huge will lead the account out of its Brooklyn, N.Y., office. Its first work for the brand is expected in November.
“Brooks is at an amazing inflection point—new designs, new people, new global ambition, and we’re just as ambitious to share their authentic story and brand with the world as only Huge can,” Huge CCO Jason Musante said in a statement.
Brooks Running spent around $2.4 million on measured marketing in the U.S. in 2018, up from nearly $2 million in 2017, according to Kantar Media.
