AKQA | Agency Profile, Contacts, AOR, Client Relationships

• The shift replaces incumbent B2B AOR McCann and incumbent media AOR Mediahub.
  • Now, Verizon consolidated all media planning and buying with Publicis.
• Per a Verizon spokeswoman, Verizon is working "to ensure we’re optimizing performance, maximizing our use of data and technology across segments, and driving the ongoing efficacy of our go-to-market approaches."
• We suggested agency reviews would follow recent leadership shifts.
• The company will likely:
  • Launch a new campaign soon
  • Shift its strategy
  • Ramp up efforts to reach business partners
  • Return to heavier ad spend
  • Conduct additional agency reviews
• Target demographic: 
  • Business DMs
  • Millennial and Gen-X consumers with a strong male skew
    • Its print media targets both English- and Spanish-speaking audiences.

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • 2021-2022 spend: Verizon spent approximately $428.9m on national TV commercials in 2022, down 9% from the approximately $471.3m spent in 2021.
  • 2022 ad programming: Its 2022 commercials targeted the male-skewed audience of shows such as NFL Football, Today, NBA Basketball, Good Morning America, and the FIFA World Cup 2022.
• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • 2021-2022 spend: In 2022, the company ended up allocating roughly $127.8m on digital ads, down 24% from the roughly $168m allocated in 2021.
  • 2022 data: Verizon earned ~15b digital impressions in 2022 via desktop video (43%), desktop display (23%), Facebook (11%), Twitter (8%), mobile display (8%), Instagram (6%), and desktop video (1%) ads.
    • ​​​​​​​Top site destinations for last year's digital ads included youtube.com (33%), Twitter, yahoo.com, zillow.com, and Twitch.
• Additional channel insights  
  • The company utilizes OOH, DRTV, print (English and Spanish newspapers), radio, and local broadcast.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: Additional agency reviews could be on Verizon's horizon, so contact soon to offer PR, digital analytics, PR, and/or experiential services.
  • The aforementioned spokesperson also mentioned that the company will continue working with creative AOR on "Consumer and other key business priorities." Thus, creative reviews seem relatively unlikely.
• Current agency roster:
  • Ogilvy: B2B AOR
  • Publicis: Media AOR
  • : Creative AOR
  • : Creative and multicultural AOR
  • : Digital AOR
  • : Digital AOR

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by .