Single Agency to Handle Nike’s Workload
Nike Inc., the footwear and apparel marketing powerhouse, has returned to an exclusive relationship with Portland, Ore.-based advertising agency Wieden & Kennedy and has fired Goodby, Silverstein & Partners of San Francisco.
“We informed Goodby, Silverstein [Monday],” said Scott Reames, a spokesman for Beaverton, Ore.-based Nike. “We wanted to move back to a one-agency model. We felt that our business climate right now was better served by one agency, as opposed to two.”
He said that Nike’s business is growing at a less robust rate, and it is creating fewer ads and running them longer. It is more feasible for a single agency to handle the workload.
Wieden & Kennedy has served Nike since 1982, except for a brief period in the mid-1980s. It produced Nike’s famous “Just Do It” tag line and has created some of its most memorable campaigns.
In early 1997, Nike added Goodby, Silverstein, a unit of Omnicom Group, to its shop roster. Since then, the industry had speculated as to how Nike divided its work between the two and whether it would maintain its ties to both agencies.
Nike’s billings, the amount it spends on advertising, have been estimated by industry publications at $350 million annually. According to Reames, the Goodby billings ranged between 20% and 30% of the total, though “Wieden was always the primary agency.”
Reames said the consolidation “had been discussed internally for a couple, three weeks at least, and finally, Rob De Florio, the director of U.S. advertising, made the decision on Monday.”
He said the decision to drop Goodby, Silverstein had no connection to the recent arrival of Ellen Turner as chief marketing officer at Nike.
“One thing that some have tried to insinuate is that this has something to do with our new chief marketing officer, Ellen Turner, and that is definitely not the case,” he said. “Ellen’s arrival and the decision to go to one agency are coincidental. They are not related.”
Turner had previously served as chief marketing officer at Kinko’s, the Ventura-based office services company.
Goodby, Silverstein, which won a Grand Prix at Cannes for its skateboarding campaign for Nike, also created the company’s immensely popular campaign for the U.S. women’s soccer team, as well as print campaigns for its apparel and footwear.
Wieden & Kennedy became a significant force in the advertising industry largely on the strength of its work for Nike. The hallowed emotional connection between the companies had resulted in some of the most memorable ads in recent advertising history.
“The sense of being whole again is incredible,” said Dan Wieden, the agency’s co-founder. “It’s such a deep psychic issue for this agency. We’ve all internalized that brand. To have it all back here really feels right.”
The decision is a boost for Wieden & Kennedy. The company’s ego was bruised this summer after losing two big clients, Microsoft Corp. and Miller Brewing Co.
