Starcom USA has triumphed in the four-way race for Bank of America’s traditional and online media strategy, planning and buying in the US.
“We were attracted to Starcom because of its thought leadership, its innovation, as well as its talent in both the traditional and online media space,” said Joe Goode, a spokesman for Bank of America.
Starcom, a division of the Publicis Groupe-owned Starcom MediaVest Group, will work in collaboration with the bank’s lead agency, New York-based BBDO, as well as Hill Holliday in Boston and other agency partners, according to Goode.
The account was previously held by Prometheus, a division of OMD. Employees working on the account will be based out of Starcom’s Chicago office, with some others in Boston, the agency said.
Bank of America initiated a formal request for proposals in December, Goode said. He confirmed that other finalist agencies were OMD’s Prometheus, Universal McCann and Avenue A/Razorfish.
“Each of the finalist agencies gave a really compelling presentation and made a final decision challenging for us,” Goode said. “Starcom excels at integration and collaboration across all agencies.”
Because the media landscape is rapidly changing, Bank of America “wanted to make sure that we had in place the kind of online and offline media planning and buying that allows us to succeed in this dynamic marketplace,” which was an impetus behind the review process, Goode added.
According to Nelson Monitor-Plus, Bank of America spent approximately $346.4 million on offline and online media from January to December of 2007.
This amount includes approximately $73.8 million in Internet spending, $169.6 million for television, $70.5 million for print, $26 million for radio, and $6.6 million for outdoor advertising.
“The Bank of America brand is all about growing opportunity, which is perfectly aligned with the approach we take at Starcom,” said John Muszynski, CEO of Starcom USA in a statement. “We’re ready to start working alongside their existing marketing partners, and thank Bank of America for the opportunity to be its business partner.”
A worldwide financial institution, Bank of America has more than 6,100 retail banking offices and about 19,000 ATMS in the US.
