LandersMadden | Agency Profile, Contacts, AOR, Client Relationships

• Fold7 is headquartered in the UK but is already working on a brand relaunch campaign in key markets including the US.
• A major part of the reason why Stoli is working on a rebrand is that it's trying to distance itself from it former name, Stolichnaya.
  • The company rebranded to Stoli in 2022 to make it clear that it did not side with Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.
• Before now, Stoli worked with FF NY. It has also worked with incumbents such as The Martin Agency and Ogilvy.
• I'd figured that Stoli would conduct additional agency reviews after Curiosity became the social AOR for sibling brands Villa One, Cenote, and Se Bussca in 2022; since then, Stoli seems to have already stopped working with Curiosity. It piques my, um, curiosity!
• The company will likely:
  • Launch the rebrand campaign soon
  • Return to hight spend when it does so
  • Seek additional new agency partners
• Target demographic: 
  • Drinking-age (21+) Gen-Z and millennials
    • Per Fold7's UK-based CSO, Yelena Gaufman, Stoli is working to ge the attention of "a new generation of drinkers," which leads me to believe it's targeting relatively younger audiences. 

Recent leadership shifts:

• ​​​​​​​Within the past several months, Stoli hired marketers such as regional marketing leader Maria O'Connor (February) and NA e-Commerce and digital leader Mathieu Bretillon (March 2023).
  • ​​​​​​​Bretillon succeeded incumbent Americas e-Commerce and digital leader Ryan Pershad, who departed in February 2023.

Additional spending insights:

• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: So far this year, Stoli has spent approximately $18k on digital ads, less than half of the approximately $40.2k spent by this point last year.
  • YTD data: The vodka brand has earned around 2.4m digital impressions YTD via Instagram (54%), YouTube (32%), Facebook (13%), and mobile display (1%) ads.
  • Last year: In 2022, Stoli spent roughly $147.4k on this channel, 39% more than the roughly $106.4k spent in 2021.
• Additional channel insights  
  • The company works with various brand ambassadors.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: Agency reviews often follow one another closely, so get in touch soon to offer media, PR, digital analytics, social media management, influencer, experiential, and/or multicultural services.
  • Though this new AOR is located in the UK, the fact that it's working with the US market as well leads me to conclude that Stoli may seek additional new agency partners for the US region.
  • You may especially benefit from offering social services since Stoli no longer seems to be working with Curiosity, which it originally hired last year.
• Current agency roster:
  • Fold7: Global strategic and creative AOR (2023 - UK-based)
  • : Media AOR
  • : PR AOR
  • : PR agency partner

Insight Sources: Digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics.​​​​​​​