Campaign Imminent: Moet Hennessy taps PR AOR for three brands amid increasing spend (Score 36)

Unlike Peter Pan, Moet Hennessy has caught its shadow; the company selected Shadow as the new PR AOR for the following brands: Belvedere, Glenmorangie and Volcan De Mi Tierra. With a renewed focus on these brands, I expect Hennessy to advertise them heavily in the coming months. Shadow will initially focus on the brands' media relations, influencer marketing, events and partnerships. This shift replaces Havas Sports & Entertainment.

We thought agency reviews may follow the 2020 hire of CEO Seth Kaufman.

Since the beginning of 2021, iSpot reports Hennessy has spent approximately $2.2m on national TV commercials, up 22% from the approximately $1.8m it had spent by this point last year. The company ended up spending approximately $6.6m on this channel last year, down 26% from the approximately $8.9m it spent in 2019, but spend is obviously picking back up. This year, Hennessy's commercials have targeted male sports enthusiasts watching programs such as NBA Basketball, NBA: The Jump, SportsCenter, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and The Curse of Oak Island.

According to Pathmatics, the company has allocated roughly $2.6m toward digital ads YTD, over 3x the roughly $697.3k it allocated within the same 2020 timeframe. Hennessy's estimated full-year 2020 spend remained flat at $3.4m compared to that of $3.4m in 2019. So far this year, the company has earned around 400.1m digital impressions via Instagram (53%), Facebook (17%), Twitter (16%), YouTube (12%), mobile display (1%) and digital display (1%) ads.

Additionally, Magellan reveals Hennessy has aired two podcast ads within the past 12 months.

As you can tell, the company is currently utilizing paid social advertising and brand influencers to reach drinking-age (21+) Gen-Z. I expect, then, that Hennessy also invests in OTT media. Its target demographic historically has a strong male skew, as you can tell by its top targeted TV shows. Per Kantar data, the company does additionally utilize radio, print, OOH and local broadcast, but its overall spend in these channels is declining. Hennessy also invests in search marketing.

Agency & martech readers - PR hires often lead to additional agency reviews, so reach out soon to see what other work is available. You'll probably have the best luck securing brand-specific partnerships. Droga5 is Hennessy's longtime creative partner; it also works with Factory 360 (creative), Havas (media), Laundry Service (social), ModOp (digital and social), Forsman & Bodenfors (creative), The O Group (creative and digital), Walrus (creative), VisualMax (digital), Omelet (creative) and ROKKAN (creative). Hennessy has additionally worked in the past with DKC (media and PR); we will let you know when we confirm whether or not this recent appointment replaces these shops.