Donovan Group Gets More Funds

Citing the agency’s entrepreneurial nature and its experience in the financial services industry, Lord, Abbett & Co. in New York has named Donovan Group its agency of record following a review of undisclosed shops.
The mutual funds management company tapped Donovan Group to handle its $2 million account because of the Northborough, Mass., agency’s experience in the financial services sector, said Mike McLaughlin, director of marketing at Lord, Abbett.
The fact that Donovan Group is privately was also a factor in the agency’s favor. “That [president] Michael Donovan’s name is on the door means something to us,” McLaughlin said. “Culturally, it was a good fit.”
Incumbent Coyne Beahm in Colfax, N.C., the client’s first ad agency, did not defend the account, said McLaughlin. Previous advertising efforts from Coyne Beahm, which McLaughlin said were primarily intended to generate name awareness, employed the tagline, “A tradition of performance through disciplined investing.” It has not yet been decided whether the 69-year-old client will retain the tagline, McLaughlin said.
“Coyne Beahm did very well for us,” he said. “We felt [we needed] to find a firm that offered a little more knowledge of the financial industry.”
Among the financial services clients that Donovan Group has worked for are Fidelity Institutional Retirement Services Co., Loomis Sayles Funds and Nvest.
Donovan Group creative director Jay Nelson and Tom Hamlin, vice president of client services, will head up the Lord, Abbett account team.