MySimon Inc., a leading Internet comparison-shopping service, yesterday named ad agency Leo Burnett USA to its account of unspecified spend.
The company switched from incumbent shop Bigelo & Partners, New York, to Burnett, an agency known to build brands around icons. MySimon’s icon is an affable young boy.
“The reason why we were selected is for our character-building experience,” said Lena Paterson, manager for corporate communications at Leo Burnett, Chicago. “Their site does have a Simon, and they need to refocus some energy on it. What they’re trying to do is humanize the site and make tech less scary.”
SFM, San Francisco, will continue to handle media buying and planning for the mySimon account.
MySimon, Santa Clara, CA, is part of CNET Networks Inc. The 2-year-old company allows consumers to conduct searches on more than 2,000 retailers’ Web sites in categories such as books, music, electronics, fashion, flowers, sporting goods, toys and computers.
The searches help consumers find information on the Internet by price, availability, product and merchant. Once the search is complete, mySimon shoppers can link to the retailer’s transaction page to purchase the product.
Competition is rife in the comparison-shopping area, especially from New York rival DealTime.com. To that end, mySimon would like to capitalize on its icon and make advertising friendlier and more appealing.
Burnett’s expertise helped create advertising icons such as Kellogg Co.’s Tony the Tiger and fresh foods marketer Green Giant’s Jolly Green Giant.
