After four years with Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Sprint Nextel Corp. has tapped Publicis Groupe-owned agency Digitas Chicago to handle all digital advertising, brand strategy, offline media, digital buying and analytics, both companies said Dec. 7.
Digitas will lead “Team Sprint” – the new unit solely dedicated to the Sprint account – as the primary agency for the brand. Team Sprint will be led by Tony Weisman, president of Digitas Chicago.
Leo Burnett with handle Sprint’s creative, according to the statement.
Kantar Media estimates Sprint spent nearly $559 million on advertising through the first six months of 2011. Sprint spent $1.06 billion on ads last year, according to The New York Times.
The move will mean the addition of 300 jobs at Digitas’ Chicago office to handle the account, Crain’s Chicago Business reported.
WPP’s Mindshare will remain Sprint’s media agency of record, according to MediaPost.
Publicis recently assigned Bob Lord, global CEO of Razorfish, oversight of VivaKi-network agencies Big Fuel, Denuo, Digitas and Phonevalley. He replaces outgoing Digitas CEO Laura Lang, who oversaw these assets prior to being named CEO of Time Inc.
Sprint declined to provide additional comment.
