Sold! McKinney Wins $100M Coldwell Banker Account

Advertising agency, which recently lost Audi and Sony, continues its rebound with second major win in recent months.

Posted 7:23 p.m. May 14, 2007 — Updated 9:08 p.m. May 14, 2007

DURHAM, N.C. — Advertising agency McKinney will be the agency of record for real estate conglomerate Coldwell Banker, which spent an estimated $100 million on advertising in 2006.

The advertising publication AdAge reported the deal on Friday.

McKinney won a six-week competition among 50 agencies for the account. Coldwell Banker, which is based in New Jersey, selected McKinney over Interpublic Group of Boston, the other finalist.

The deal continued a strong comeback for McKinney, which recently lost Audi and Sony. The firm landed Virgin Mobile in February.

McKinney laid off 40 people after it lost the Audi and Sony accounts. The firm isn’t quite ready to add headcount yet, according to company spokesperson Janet Northen.

“We will stay put for now,” Northen said. “We are not quite in the hiring mode yet.”

McKinney plans to work with Coldwell Banker to build on its online status.

"This is one of those chances where it's a very old and established brand that is a pioneer online," Jeff Jones, president of McKinney, told AdAge. He added that the creative challenge is to further build the company's online brand and status. "At the end of the day, what Coldwell Banker has to do is create a brand proposition that makes consumers realize they have the best of both worlds - established agents and online tools."

Coldwell Banker operates 3,800 offices and has more than 123,700 agents around the world.

"As we look to continue to reposition the brand to new real estate consumers, we're looking for McKinney to play a role of driving consistency of messaging through all those channels," Charlie Young, senior vice president of Coldwell Banker told Adweek, another industry publication.

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