Back in March, AdAge reported that Beats by Dre–the premium headphone brand started by one Andre Young and sold to Apple in 2014 for the super cheap price of $3 billion–would be reaching out to various agencies as it continues its international expansion under the leadership of marketing VP Jason White.
Today, reliable sources tell us that New York’s Anomaly has won the subsequent review.
According to sources for the initial story, the client’s agency outreach is related to its plans to sell more premium headphones overseas. White, who previously ran the global Nike account for Wieden+Kennedy and managed its Shanghai office, will reportedly see his role at the company expand moving forward as well. Sources tell us that CMO Omar Johnson, who according to AdAge will become more involved in promoting Apple Music in conjunction with the Beats brand, has actively worked to help guide the creative direction of its past and present campaigns.
Beats has a longstanding relationship with R/GA, which was not involved in this review. We also hear that 72andSunny was among the agencies in the initial group considered by Beats before it eventually went with Anomaly.
Late last year we learned of a series of departures within the creative department at Hustle, the L.A. unit of the IPG network that handled some aspects of the Beats work. This time, however, we hear that the addition of another agency to the Beats roster will not affect its relationship with R/GA, whose L.A. and London offices have driven creative on most of the brand’s biggest efforts to date aside from those produced by its own in-house team.
An R/GA spokesperson declined to comment for this post. Anomaly and the Beats organization itself have not yet responded to our queries.