• by Steve McClellan , March 16, 2016

Nationwide has appointed WPP’s Ogilvy & Mather as its new lead creative agency the companies confirmed Wednesday.

The appointment comes after the insurance company parted ways with McKinney in February. The split came after a CMO switch at the agency last year. Matt Jauchius was replaced by company veteran Terrance Williams.

The search for a new shop didn’t take long, presumably because Ogilvy had been doing some project work for the company, including the controversial “Dead Boy” ad in the Super Bowl last year. The spot was about a dead boy talking about some of life’s precious moments that he wouldn’t get to experience.

Nationwide issued a statement confirming the selection, noting that Ogilvy has worked with it “most recently since 2013, with a primary focus on developing creative that supports our partnerships with Peyton Manning and Dale Earnhardt Jr.”

Williams stated: “Nationwide and Ogilvy share a rich heritage, with Ogilvy helping to develop the original ‘Nationwide is on your side’ slogan more than 50 years ago. We work with many agencies to support the needs of our business, but we only need one creative agency.

"Rather than putting the work out to bid, we conducted a thorough internal process and determined that Ogilvy is best positioned among all of our partners to support our journey from many brands to one.” 

New work from Ogilvy is expected to break later this year.