Campaign Imminent: Valvoline taps new media AOR amid spike in digital spend (Score 60)

Sales Lead: Novus recently became the brand media AOR for Valvoline Instant Oil Change.

• The agency will utilize a hyper-local strategy to bolster the Valvoline brand's ongoing rapid growth, build increased customer trust, and amplify the brand at local levels.
• It will handle duties such as media planning, buying, and analytics.
• This shift seems to have replaced incumbent media AOR Initiative, but we will let you know when we have confirmed this.
• We predicted that Valvoline would conduct agency reviews following its recent promotion of chief brand and digital officer Robert Kenny.
• The company will likely:
  • Launch a new campaign soon
  • Continue increasing digital spend
  • Seek additional new agency partners
• Target demographic: 
  • Gen-Z and millennial men

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: Valvoline hasn't utilized national TV since allocating around $18.3k in 2021.
  • 2023 ad programming: Its 2021 commercials aired during ARCA Racing Series.
• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: So far this year, the company has spent approximately $5.3m on digital ads, already almost double the approximately $2.9m spent in all of 2022.
  • YTD data: Valvoline has earned ~572.7m digital impressions YTD via YouTube (39%), Facebook (24%), Instagram (18%), desktop display (10%), desktop video (6%), and mobile display (3%) ads.
  • Last year: In 2022, the company spent roughly $2.9m on this channel, 15% less than the roughly $3.4m spent in 2021.
• Additional channel insights  
  • Valvoline invests in Google Ads along with OOH, digital, local broadcast, TikTok, Facebook, and online video (via Youtube.com, Youtube Android, and Youtube IOS) ads.
  • The company sponsors podcasts such as The Dale Jr. Download, Felger & Massarotti, Mason & Ireland, Fantasy Baseball Today, and The Smoking Tire.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: Agency reviews often follow one another closely, especially when they follow DM shifts, so look for other potential roster shifts in the near future.
• Current agency roster:
  • Novus: Brand media AOR (September 2023)
  • Hill Holliday: Creative AOR
  • PowerScoppechio: Creative and media agency partner
  • Pace PR: PR agency partner

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix; podcast insights by Podchaser.