UPDATE: Mondelez Ends Its Relationship with Mother New York

By Patrick Coffee 

UPDATE: The day after this post ran, Mondelez confirmed that it does not plan to work with Mother moving forward and that it will indeed stop running TV ads after the agency’s most recent campaign concludes.

From a client spokesperson:

“We have been happy with the work Mother and our other SPK agencies have done for us. It has helped us build a successful business.  For calendar year 16 we will be leveraging the TV creative Mother developed including successful spots from our ‘Sour.Sweet.Gone’ campaign such as ‘Prom’ and ‘Summer Party’. We do not have plans for new TV at this time so they don’t currently have an assignment with us for this year.”

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Sources close to the matter told us earlier this month that multinational food/drink conglomerate Mondelez had ended its relationship with Mother New York, which led creative on the Sour Patch Kids account for several years. Mother staffers began transitioning off the business in mid-January.

It’s unclear at this time whether Mondelez has issued an RFP for the account or has plans to send it to another of its many partner agencies.

Over the years, Mother created the “Kids” characters and produced a large and varied body of work for Sour Patch including this full 2011 “Roll Deep” music video by Method Man.

Like most such conglomerates (Unilever, P&G, Kraft-Heinz, etc.), Mondelez has recently struggled to demonstrate growth to investors after a weak second quarter and uncertainty regarding its performance in emerging markets.

One possible explanation for the change concerns the parent company’s efforts to target younger consumers via digital games, Snapchat promos, social media “influencers” like Logan Paul and even “The Brooklyn Patch,” which was a “brownstone nestled in the borough’s Clinton Hill neighborhood that roving musicians can use as a crash pad while in town for gigs and video shoots.” This all followed an early 2014 announcement in which the client pledged to shift its marketing dollars to the digital side.

(A crew from Brooklyn Magazine later made its way into the Sour Patch House, which was about as comfortable as you’d expect it to be.)

Mondelez’s PR department responded to our initial query but has since declined multiple requests to comment or provide additional details regarding the Sour Patch Kids account.

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