Levi Strauss & Co. is back with FCB.
The jeans marketer, which previously created some of its most memorable work with Foote, Cone & Belding in San Francisco, has shifted its business to Interpublic’s Draftfcb and independent The House Worldwide.
The shift comes after the company split with Wieden + Kennedy five months ago. Omnicom Group's OMD remains the company’s global media agency. Global media spending on the brand could not be ascertained but in the U.S. alone spending totals about $40 million annually.
Draftfcb and The House, a global network of independent agencies that was launched last March by former Publicis global chief operating officer Richard Pinder, will work together as a team on the business. Pinder worked with Draftfcb’s recently-installed global chief Carter Murray when he was Publicis's Paris-based chief marketing officer and a worldwide account director, working on Nestlé. Both are also alumni of Leo Burnett.
Murray credited Dominic Whittles, president of Draftfcb in San Francisco, in helping to win the business. The agency's San Francisco and Irvine, Calif. offices will work with House units ChinaMadrid in Spain and CumminsRoss in Australia. Whittles will oversee North America and Pinder, international markets.
Advertising was a big component in creating Levi’s success and the brand was built for 67 years by the San Francisco office of Foote Cone & Belding. Throughout the ‘80s and early ‘90s in particular, FCB created campaigns like ‘501 Blues’ under the direction of creative director Mike Koelker with ads that combined urban street scenes with richly varied music.