Ad Age reckons Uber is about to appoint MDC Partners’ 72andSunny (left) as its first global creative agency. Uber, which has recently lurched from one disaster to another but that’s not so strange on the West Coast these days, has used Deutsch in the US and BBH in the UK.
The global search follows the appointment of former Apple Music marketing boss Bozoma Saint John as its new head of marketing. Uber is also seeking a global media agency.
In the recent past Uber hasn’t spent very much but such companies can go from nowhere to somewhere very rapidly. Amazon is now thought to spend about $5bn annually on advertising, not that far short of P&G and Unilever.
Tech companies are rapidly becoming the big spenders of the ad world and seen unfazed by the supposed difficulty of executing global campaigns without a fully fledged global network, all owned by the big holding companies.
MDC agencies, which also include Anomaly, KBS and CP+B, have recently picked up a number of big accounts, Anomaly being the standout with a new sustainability project from IKEA and Electrolux.
72andSunny, along with WPP’s VML, became the first agencies to be “certified” by equality advocacy group 3% Movement for creating inclusive cultures for men and women – useful in new business terms too as many US clients in particular are insisting their agencies field diversified teams.
