Hershey Foods last week reassigned its advertising and marketing account after a review, hiring Arnold Worldwide and expanding current work for North Castle Partners.
Boston-based Arnold will handle all advertising and marketing for core brands including Hershey’s, Reese’s, Hershey’s Kisses, Take 5, York and Kit Kat. Stamford, CT-based North Castle will handle refreshment and sugar confectionery brands including Ice Breakers, Twizzlers and Jolly Rancher; snack brands including Hershey’s Cookies and Snack Barz; and Scharffen Berger and Joseph Schmidt premium chocolates brands, which Hershey bought earlier this year.
Arnold and North Castle shops replace longtime agencies Ogilvy & Mather and DDB, both New York. Ogilvy announced that it resigned Hershey’s ad account the same day Hershey announced its new assignments. Ogilvy cited “an emerging conflict” as its reason for resigning the business; the agency won Kraft Foods’ global account for its confectionery group last year. Ogilvy handled Hershey’s ads for 35 years.
The reassignments fit recent changes in Hershey’s strategy to more integrated and experiential marketing.
“The [agency] changes we are implementing will help Hershey further build its brands and drive growth by connecting with consumers across a full range of touch points and media, including the Internet, public relations, consumer promotions, and interactive communications,” said Senior VP-President of U.S. Confectionery Tom Hernquist in a statement.
New work will leverage consumers’ emotional connection to Hershey’s brands, and heavy up online and retail communications. No promotions agencies were part of the reassignments; Omnicom Group’s OMD, New York, continues to handle media placement.
