Ashley Furniture HomeStore has selected McCann Erickson as the chain’s new lead strategic, creative and social agency, the company confirmed.
The Interpublic Group agency pitched the account with corporate sibling Compass Point Media, a unit of Campbell Mithun, which added Ashley’s media planning. Media buying will remain at ICON International in Stamford, Conn. That business was not in play.
The retailer spent more than $127 million in media in 2013, according to Kantar Media, but that figure included spending for a subsidiary, mattress store ZZZ's by Ashley, that wasn't part of the review. Ashley's original request for proposals estimated media spending on the assignment at $50 million.
Zimmerman, a unit of Omnicom Group, had been Ashley's creative and media planning shop since April 2009, and defended the account. The other contenders could not be ascertained.
Pile + Co. in Boston managed the agency search, which began in March.
Ashley is the second win for the New York office of McCann this week, after after Cigna. Last month the agency also landed some Reckitt Benckiser assignments while in April McCann led the Interpublic creative team that prevailed in Microsoft's global consolidation.