Way back in April, New York Life (which still maintains its headquarters in the New York Life building, BTW) launched a full agency review after four years with Havas.
Approximately one month ago, the company named three parties to handle its creative, media and PR accounts: Anomaly, MediaVest and Weber Shandwick, respectively.
Now we’ve learned that it picked a fourth agency for digital work primarily focused on its web presence and marketing tech: Code and Theory of New York. Prior to the review, Havas handled creative and Assembly did media planning and buying; the company does not appear to have worked with a digital shop in the past.
From a client spokesperson:
“[Code and Theory] has been engaged to reexamine our consumer websites and marketing technology.”
When last we heard from that Code and Theory, it was helping David promote Burger King’s new fiery chicken fries after winning the digital AOR business, which had been with Big Fuel, in January 2014. It also recently redesigned the Finlandia Vodka website and, in 2013, led our Mediabistro colleagues on a tour of its Manhattan office.
On the staffing side, Code recently lost its senior creative strategist Greg Eckelman and creative strategist Eric Arcidiacono, with the former heading to We Are Social New York.
Kantar Media estimates that New York Life spends $75 million on domestic advertising each year. No word on what percentage of that total goes to digital, but given the competition among life insurance and other such service providers fighting for the business of aging millennials, we expect fresh campaigns to launch soon.