Campaign Imminent: Kraft Heinz taps new media AOR (Score 55)

Sales Lead: Kraft Heinz (KH) recently awarded its US media account to Carat, concluding a review.

• Carat has handled media work for KH in regions outside of the US in the past, but this expands its remit to include the US, which is KH's largest region by spending.
• The shift replaces Publicis's Starcom, which held the business for about five years and retained its US remit after KH's last review in 2020.
• I predicted an agency review would kick off close to the departure of now-former chief marketing and growth officer Sanjiv Gajiwala.
• The company will likely:
  • Launch a new campaign
  • Shift strategy
  • Continue increasing digital spend
  • Seek additional new agency partners
• Target demographic: 
  • Gen-Z and millennials with a skew toward women, specifically moms and other household decision-makers

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance); digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • View recent national TV and digital spend for top brands here.  
• Additional channel insights  
  • The company utilizes Google Ads along with OOH, digital, local broadcast, print, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and online video (via Youtube.com, Youtube Android, and YouTube IOS) ads.
  • KH sponsors podcasts such as NPR News Now, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, Stories from NPR, The Indicator from Planet Money, and Stuff To Blow Your Mind.
  • The company also invests in short-form DRTV ads.
    • KH has incredibly highly concentrated network TV coverage and will not likely launch a new campaign in the immediate future.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: Additional agency reviews could easily follow this one, especially once KH finds a new CMO; reach out soon to remain top-of-mind.
• Current agency roster:
  • Carat: Media AOR (September 2023)
  • Leo Burnett Worldwide: Creative, digital, social, multicultural, and experiential AOR
  • Johannes Leonardo: Creative AOR  
  • Wieden + Kennedy: Creative AOR  
  • GUT Miami: Creative AOR
  • VaynerMedia: Creative AOR
  • Goodby, Silverstein & Partners: Creative, digital, and social AOR
  • Alison Brod: PR AOR
  • Zeno Group: PR AOR
  • Havas Formula: PR AOR (May 2022)

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix; podcast insights by Podchaser; DRTV insights by Media Analytics.