Arnold Worldwide

After three months or so of reviewing, the University of Phoenix, which is an accredited college institution mind you, has tapped Arnold Worldwide as its new agency of record. If you remember, the Apollo Group-owned school previously worked with Pereira & O’Dell for nearly three years. Arnold’s Boston headquarters will oversee the work for University of Phoenix, which is set to debut this fall.

In a statement, Arnold Boston president Pam Hamlin says, “Adult education is a fast-growing market and University of Phoenix is the largest in the category. We’re incredibly excited to partner with them to help create a distinct and powerful brand message in a category that’s currently filled with ‘a sea of sameness.”

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Since Friday, we’ve been receiving tips that Arnold won out in the American Eagle Outfitters global review and ever since, we’ve been reaching out but have received no word back from the agency or client (thanks for nothing, folks!). Well, while we kick ourselves for not posting this at least as a We Hear item yesterday, we might as well let you know that Adweek confirms AEO has tapped Arnold and MediaCom to handle its creative and media duties, respectively.

American Eagle’s review kicked off a few months ago and also included Leo Burnett/Starcom and Deutsch/Initiative according to the trade, which also reports that Arnold NY just won the Kohler business. Well, guess we now know whose jock they’re on so let us give our most sarcastic round of applause.

Multiple sources are telling us that after just 18 months, Arnold creative director Steve Caputo is no longer with the agency. Caputo joined Arnold from R/GA, where he worked for seven years and last held the title of creative director on accounts including Nike+, Nike Basketball, Intel and Chanel. The Arnold camp, thus far, is keeping schtum on Caputo’s status, but tipsters are saying that the creative was let go due to “financial reasons.” All calls to Caputo have been met with automated voicemail (that seems to be a recurring theme this week, and from what we’ve learned, it’s not because that they’re just out to lunch). Anyhow, we’re digging in so stay tuned if you’d like.

From Arnold Worldwide comes a new campaign for Jack Daniel’s that lauds the seriousness of responsible drinking. And, who better to instruct America’s whiskey drinking public on the importance of togetherness and watching your friends’ backs than Georgia-based Grammy-winning country group, the Zac Brown Band? With beards like that, it’s fully believable that the band has some veteran experience with imbibing Tennessee bourbon.

As you might recall, Jack Daniel’s partnered with ZBB in August for an integrated campaign and tour dates that included some heavily sponsored sold-out tour dates. As part of the next phase of the campaign, ZBB is starring in two new TV spots for Jack, beginning with “Responsibility” (above). With the tagline “Protect Your Band,” ZBB calls for the watching over of one’s bros when leisurely ingesting liquor.

So, dear readers, when the upcoming weekend threatens to claim one of your own, remember the wise words of the Zac Brown Band, and leave no man behind. Credits and one more spot follow after the jump.

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The Mike Wilson agency tour continues as sources familiar with the matter confirm that Arnold has parted ways with the creative, who joined up with the Boston office and reunited with Pete Favat less than a year ago. From what we’re hearing, Wilson was let go from Arnold, which brought him on last May to handle Dell and other global clients.

Prior to Arnold, Wilson served as CCO at GSD&M for a year, held the same title before that at Dentsu (two-and-a-half years) and had a decade-long stint at worldwide creative director at Ogilvy. No word yet from sources if there are plans to replace him, but we’ll keep you posted.

While we’re on the Arnold-related tip, guess it’s worth mentioning that the agency has been selected as creative agency of record for Carbonite, which we know from its numerous live ads on Howard Stern’s Sirius XM show but bills itself as a provider of online backup solutions for consumers and small and medium-sized businesses. Tom Murray, SVP, marketing for the seven-year-old Carbonite, says in a statement, “We’ve been really impressed with Arnold’s understanding of our business and, of course, we’re drawn to their legacy of success creating iconic campaigns that have generated great results for brands.”

As you’d expect, Arnold will be responsible for strategy, the usual digital, TV, print and radio advertising as well as web design for Carbonite, which we assume is run by a bunch of Star Wars fans. We’ve been told Arnold is Carbonite’s first creative agency and there wasn’t a formal review.

Upon viewing the above spot from Arnold Worldwide for McDonald’s, you probably scoffed at the idea of the “Egg McMuffin of” catching on as a widespread euphemism for “the best.” Either that, or you started debating which of McDonald’s breakfast items was the best. (“I get that you’re more of a McGriddle girl, but I’m a big biscuit kind of guy myself.”) Some of us did both.

The nice shout-out to Cadillac in the spot served as a reminder that no one under 50 (maybe older) has ever referred to anything as the “Cadillac of” similar but lesser things. Hey, maybe Arnold’s trying to blow the doors wide open for America’s youth and their love of ridiculous slang. Could this silly tagline along the same lines as “the cure for the common” actually make its way into popular vernacular? Well, this Hoboken apartment listing, this popular website, and this Twitter update sent to us in the release argue that it already has. In fact, we were given statistics that say the phrase “has been tweeted over 11,000 times on Twitter and mentioned nearly 1,200 times on Facebook since the debut of the commercial on December 29, 2011.”

Still skeptical? Of course you are. But, one true measure of determining whether this was surprising success or failure is seeing if it pops up in news headlines. Perhaps, sooner than you think, we’ll see Aaron Rodgers hailed as the Egg McMuffin of quarterbacks, Facebook called the Egg McMuffin of web 2.0 IPO successes, and Mitt Romney declared the Egg McMuffin of presidential candidates at the Republican National Convention. Credits after the jump.

 

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After spending two years as executive director, digital marketing solutions within Time, Inc.’s Branded Solutions division, Angela Wei is crossing back over to the agency side to assume the newly created chief digital officer role at ArnoldNYC. Wei, who has worked at the likes of Razorfish (senior producer) and FCB (VP, executive producer) during her 15-year digital media career, sounds like a welcome addition to the Arnold Worldwide family according to Andrew Benett. The agency’s CEO/Havas global CSO says in a statement, “Angela represents the best of both worlds. Someone who has worked in the advertising industry, yet also has vast digital and media experience. She knows how to foster innovative environments and how to integrate digital throughout the marketing experience.  She’s a huge win not only for Arnold’s New York office, but also for our global network.”

Once Wei steps into her chief digital officer role on Jan. 23, the exec will partner up with ArnoldNYC president Lynn Power and CCO John Staffen to expand the office’s digital/tech capabilities, and she’ll also join forces with Arnold global CDO Matt Howell to “devise and execute” the agency’s digital offering across the network.

Volvo and Arnold’s relationship, which dates back to April 2007, is going global as the automaker has now awarded the agency its U.K. and China business. SapientNitro, which previously handled the Volvo account in said countries, will still retain the Australia business while Euro RSCG 4D will remain on as lead digital agency. As a result of the automaker’s agency realignment, the “Team Volvo” model that was essentially a creative alliance between Arnold, Euro and SapientNitro, will be put to bed by year’s end.

Beginning in 2012, Arnold’s Amsterdam office, which opened last year, will take the lead on the Volvo account while global ECD Sean Thompson (who joined Arnold from 180 Amsterdam 15 months ago) and global brand director Jorian Murray will continue to manage.

Regarding the expanded partnership with Volvo, Andrew Bennett, Arnold’s global CEO and CSO of parent company Havas, says, “Over the last couple of years we’ve concentrated on growing our footprint globally and improving our work. This additional responsibility is a manifestation of that. It’s not only an honor to be able to represent one of the greatest brands in the world in more markets, it’s a testament to the amazing partnership we are fortunate to enjoy.”

Your agency might have a beer or two in the fridge, but does your agency have its own branded beer in its own specialized vending machine that can use Twitter to communicate with drinkers? Unless you’re at Arnold Boston, the answer is probably no.

Every year, Arnold sets aside $100,000 for the “Make Project,” an initiative that encourages employees to “manage less and make more.” Out of this initiative came the Beer Vending Machine, perhaps the most technologically advanced vending machine since those crazy touchscreen machines that allow you to add a variety flavors to popular Coke products. (Grape-flavored Sprite is not recommended.)

As we’re told, the “RFID-enabled vending machine has a touchscreen interface, is temperature aware and has Soundtube. It also has a personality – through the fob it will recognize who you are and greet you with ‘Hi (person’s name),’ and will talk you through your vending experience. The touch screen interface is set up for Twitter communication (you can tweet from the machine) and data visualization (you can choose to see how much beer was consumed each day of the week). In addition, there’s an ‘alepedia’ that allows you to learn more about each of the brews.”

Currently, the Arnold beer vending machine offers six different types of brew (picture below), and the agency will create more “specific to seasons, events, people and even clients, inviting others at the agency to become involved in the brewing process.” Hey Arnold, is there any way you could send AgencySpy a case of Arnold Pilsner? You know, for purposes of more in-depth reporting?