Today we hear that Verizon’s extended series of agency reviews continued in recent months with the telecommunications giant moving some of its Hispanic creative account from López Negrete Communications to The Community, the Miami/Buenos Aires shop formerly known as la comunidad* and acquired last January by SapientNitro.
While the news has not been officially announced, the agency’s holiday video makes clear that it recently added the company to its roster.
You’re going to like this one, which notes that the shop–now owned by Publicis–scored “more wins than the Marlins, Dolphins, Kings and Crispin Porter combined” in 2015.
“Top 10, baby! Hard to make this stuff up.”
The only questions now are whether the client held a formal review and which portions of the business The Community won.
Sources tell us that the shop won both the wireless and general brand accounts, which would make sense given the client’s recent consolidation moves. (Quick reminder: Verizon sent its English-language creative on the wireless business to McCann in October without a review, and the news didn’t come as much of a surprise.)
Verizon last reviewed its multicultural accounts in late 2013, sending wireless from GlobalHue to independent Houston-based López Negrete Communications, which had been working on the general brand business since 2010. The account has been López Negrete’s largest.
This is very good news for The Community, and we appreciate their love for Bell Biv Devoe though we don’t quite understand why Bloc Party’s best single is a good soundtrack for 2015 given the fact that it came out 10 years ago.
UPDATE: Verizon confirmed that it awarded portions of its account to The Community earlier this year but did not specify the precise nature of the relationship between the two parties; it also tells us that it has not ended its partnership with López Negrete. From a client spokesperson:
“We’ve actually been working with [The Community] since the summer. We also continue with Lopez Negrete.”
*In an earlier version of this post, we referred to the agency as la comunidad; it is now officially known as The Community.