So our sources were right: Royal Caribbean did not choose the established player (Deutsch NY), the edgy alternative (Droga5) or the smaller upstart (22squared) in its extended creative review.
The client instead concluded that review today by choosing Mullen, now known as Mullen Lowe, as its lead creative agency to succeed JWT.
A source tells our colleague Andrew McMains of Adweek that the client’s final review–of its media agencies–is now down to three: Media Storm, Mediahub and defending incumbent Mindshare.
The recent Mullen/Lowe merger raises a couple of questions. First, will the client favor Mullen’s media arm Mediahub for its buying business? Second, who will run creative on the account?
(Given the fact that Campbell Ewald will “return to its roots as an independent agency within the IPG and Mullen Lowe Group portfolios,” that shop will clearly not work on Royal Caribbean. But will current Lowe employees who were not also Mullen employees work on it?)
Expect hiring announcements to come…and expect them to be complicated by the many moving parts of the newly formed Mullen Lowe Group.