A spokesperson for Verizon confirmed today that Wieden+Kennedy will be the latest member of its extensive agency roster.
Details unfortunately remain scant due to the company’s unwillingness to reveal too much of its marketing strategy to its competitors (who obviously read this blog), but we can confirm a few things:
- Despite any claims to the contrary, mcgarrybowen will continue to serve as AOR for the company’s wireless business, a role it has held since winning the account from McCann in April 2010.
- Similarly, McCann will retain the FiOS portion of Verizon’s business.
Here’s the official word from corporate:
“We are happy to say we recently added Wieden+Kennedy to our roster of agencies, which number about 40 at this point.”
The client refused to reveal which specific responsibilities it had assigned to W+K, and we cannot confirm which offices will handle the account (though Verizon’s headquarters is based in New York), but observers should expect to see some sort of creative attributed to Wieden+Kennedy within the next few months.
You may note that this news comes just over a week after a Bloomberg piece reported that the company recently approached AOL about a “takeover or joint venture.” That news, combined with November reports on a now-dead “native advertising” site produced by mcgarrybowen, imply that the client plans to dive deeply into the business of “content.”
Wieden+Kennedy offered no comment on the news, deferring to the client.