• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, July 16, 2015

Gossip is swirling that Nationwide is on the hunt for a new ad agency. Which, in the wake of last year's Super Bowl "Boy" ad and the departure of CMO Matt Jauchius who defended the ad, isn't really a surprise.

Terrence Williams has stepped in as CMO and, as we all know, every CMO must leave their mark and, so, agency review. 

While Ogilvy created the infamous "Boy" ad and is said to be working on a 50th anniversary campaign for the brand in celebration of the 50-year-old, Ogilvy-created "Nationwide Is On Your Side" tagline, McKinney has handled a portion of the business since 2009 and created the Mindy Kaling Super Bowl ad for the brand.

A statement issued by Nationwide reads, “Nationwide works with multiple agencies to support our marketing and advertising needs. We routinely evaluate these partnerships to ensure we have mutually beneficial relationships, and are aligned with our strategic objectives.”

Which, of course, says nothing and means nothing. But if I had to guess, it's yet another agency shift because, God forbid, actual humans figure out how to work with other actual humans rather than divorcing troublesome humans in favor of fresh, new humans. Doesn't that sum up the current state of agency relationships nicely?