VaynerMedia has been getting some press of late that has nothing to do with Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book (which currently sits on our desk).
Yesterday we witnessed some “moments of chillness” in the agency’s latest spot for Mountain Dew, and today we hear that the shop’s first-ever CCO has delivered a new business win by beating out his former employer for the Noosa Yoghurt account.
Noosa is based in Bellvue, Colorado, and it had a longstanding relationship with the Boulder offices of EVB. We hear, however, that Vayner will be its AOR moving forward after the conclusion of a creative review.
Representatives for Noosa declined to comment for this post, as did reps for VaynerMedia.
Multiple sources close to the matter, however, tell us that Vayner beat out several Boulder-area shops for the business. The number of potential competitors in the pitch is somewhat limited: CP+B, TDA_Boulder and Victors & Spoils pretty much round out the group.
For context, Steve Babcock joined Gary’s shop just over a month ago as its first-ever chief creative officer. He moved to New York from his longtime home base of Boulder, where he was previously an executive creative director at CP+B and EVB, which let him go last September before naming Troy Burrows as his replacement. Babcock then went freelance before Vayner picked him up.
We are not personally familiar with Noosa, but the company is doing quite well. It was acquired by a private equity firm in 2014 and has expanded the number of retail outlets carrying its products from 5,000 to 25,000 since 2012. It also nearly doubled its total employee count over the past year and recently completed a $20 million expansion of its production plant.