Heineken Drops Geometry Global for TracyLocke and IN Marketing

By Patrick Coffee 

Less than a year after announcing that it would expand its relationship with retail and shopper marketing agency of record Geometry Global in the U.S., Heineken has dropped that shop in favor of Omnicom’s TracyLocke after a review in which it also chose In Marketing Services for channel-driven retail work.

From a Heineken spokesperson:

“After a review process, we are excited to announce TracyLocke as our agency of record for shopper marketing, and InMarketing as our agency for channel driven retail solutions. We are very excited about entering these partnerships, and continuing the momentum we’ve generated to connect with consumers in new and relevant ways.”

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Geometry had been AOR for Heineken USA’s Commercial Marketing, National Accounts Off-Premise and Regional Marketing business for several years prior to being named AOR for “Hispanic and Total Market retail and shopper marketing” in early 2015. Moving forward, TracyLocke will handle national brand portfolio work for the entire roster of U.S. Heineken brands including Tecate, Dos Equis, Newcastle, Amstel Light and more. It will also be in charge of regional marketing and designing localized market activations.

We hear that the total account is worth more than $10 million for TracyLocke, and this isn’t the only time TL has won business away from Geometry in recent months: last summer, SC Johnson also moved its retail account from WPP to Omnicom.

This development marks the end of Heineken’s relationship with Geometry Global in the U.S., but not internationally. In 2014, the beer giant signed the shop for global sponsorship activations, and it later created some “handwritten holiday cards” that earned a writeup in PSFK.

The initial proof of the TracyLocke win could be found on the agency’s career page, where it is currently hiring for an account director position on the “growing Heineken USA team” in its Wilton, Connecticut office. The win may or may not have had anything to do with the agency’s descision to hire former Heineken commercial marketing manager (and, previously, TracyLocke account executive) Bill Natlo as group account director over the summer.

TracyLocke and Geometry Global declined to comment for this post, but we hear that an undisclosed number of layoffs will follow the account loss.

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