Wendy’s named The Kaplan Thaler Group as its lead creative agency with responsibilities encompassing advertising, media planning, digital marketing and restaurant activation. Kaplan Thaler was selected from a group of five leading agencies that participated in a review. Wendy’s disciplined brand-building process began with the creation of Wendy’s/Arby’s Group 9/08. This process has encompassed:
•Implementation of a clear brand strategy and aligned business objectives
•Reorganization of marketing team resources
•Overhaul of the R&D and market testing approach
•Creation of a robust product pipeline, which includes a record number of products in test in the second half of 2009
Wendy’s will introduce an integrated communications campaign and a new ad direction during Q4. The next step of the agency review process – to be completed later this year in collaboration with Kaplan Thaler – will be the selection of agencies to support multi-cultural marketing, buying and PR efforts.
