Huge Forges Global Partnership With Lowe

  • by March 24, 2011

Aaron-Shapiro

Six months after expanding overseas, Interpublic's Huge has scored its biggest international business to date -- being named by sister creative agency Lowe & Partners as "preferred global digital partner" for the latter's roster of Unilever brands.

Those brands, accounting for about half of all Unilever AOR business, have virtually no presence in North America, so Huge's work on them will be done out of the agency's new offices in London, Singapore, Stockholm and Sao Paulo, Brazil, says Huge CEO Aaron Shapiro.

The brands include food and beverage giant Knorr; the partnership begins with Huge working on household cleaning products Cif and Sunlight for the European, Middle East, African, Latin Americas and Asian markets.

Shapiro -- himself elevated to CEO just five months ago, after the departure of Huge founders David Skokna and Sasha Kirovski -- called the Lowe partnership "a tremendous validation of our strategy of expanding globally" and "a strong testament to the way marketing is going in the future."

Shapiro said that while international now accounts for just 25 of Huge's 300 total employees -- or just 8% -- he expects the split to eventually be 50/50.

Prior to teaming with Huge, Lowe used a mix of ad hoc shops and some in-house for its digital needs, Shapiro said. It will now have the advantage of one touchpoint: "a single, tight integration of traditional and digital."

Huge's U.S. offices are in Brooklyn, NY, and Los Angeles.

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