One of America’s biggest advertisers remains in consolidation mode. Verizon recently decided to move all or most of the digital work on its brand account to R/GA after adding that agency to its roster along with AKQA last year.
Now, sources with direct knowledge of the matter confirm that the client will consolidate the direct marketing portion of the FiOS business with independent bi-coastal agency Rauxa. MRM//McCann had previously been AOR on that side of the account.
A client spokesperson writes: “As a policy, we don’t talk about our agency relationships, but we are constantly optimizing our roster to ensure we have access to the best thinking and most creative ideas.”
We hear, however, that MRM//McCann has lost the direct marketing portion of the business.
McCann has been working with Verizon for some time, and MRM last won business with the client back in 2013 when it replaced R/GA as “digital acquisition agency of record” on FiOS. Sapient won “site and retail aspects” of the business in that review, which was two years before McCann New York inherited creative AOR status on FiOS from mcgarrybowen.
Rauxa also has a longstanding relationship with Verizon. The agency first began working with the telcom company more than 15 years ago, and its share of the business gradually expanded. In 2011 it won direct marketing duties from Hill Holliday, and now it seems to have become the lead digital agency on FiOS.