Pirelli North America names Rosetta interactive AOR

Pirelli Tire North America named Rosetta its first interactive agency of record last month.

Rosetta began working with Pirelli in 2008. Last December, the tire company gave Rosetta the exclusive chance to pitch for AOR duties, said Paul Elliott, partner for consumer product goods and retail at Rosetta. The tire maker officially named Pirelli AOR on March 17.

Rosetta is managing all interactive channels for Pirelli, including paid and organic search, display and social media, Elliott added. Though the agency considers Pirelli a retail brand, the partnership is affected by the state of the automotive industry, according to Elliott.

“Tire manufacturers have different audiences in consumers and automakers,” he said. “Most of our work will be direct-to-consumer marketing. Anyone selling tires is obviously impacted by sales of new vehicles, though someone hanging onto a car longer means there may be more opportunities in the tire-replacement market.”

The agency has assigned seven employees to work on search, display and social media for the brand. Creative work will debut in mid-May, when Rosetta's current personality-based segmentation study is finished, Elliott explained.

Pirelli declined to comment.