The skies over Seattle are about to get a bit more crowded, at least on the agency side.

Alaska Air Group, the parent company of Alaska Airlines and the recently acquired Hawaiian Airlines, has named Anomaly its creative agency of record, according to people familiar with the matter. The assignment represents a significant win for Anomaly, which has been building its aviation credentials in recent years.

The selection comes at a pivotal moment for Alaska Air Group, which completed its $1.9 billion acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines last year and now faces the delicate task of marketing two distinct carrier brands to overlapping but not identical customer bases. Alaska has long cultivated a reputation for friendly service and West Coast practicality; Hawaiian trades on the romance of the islands and the promise of arrival as its own reward.

How Anomaly, which is part of the Stagwell network, will handle that dual mandate remains to be seen. The agency has offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Shanghai and Toronto, giving it the geographic reach that airline accounts typically demand. (Airlines, perhaps more than any other category, require their agencies to understand that Tuesday in Seattle is not the same as Tuesday in Honolulu.)

Alaska Air Group had previously worked with Mekanism on creative duties. A spokesperson for the airline declined to comment on the review process or the scope of the new assignment.

For Anomaly, the win adds another travel client to a roster that has included Virgin Atlantic and various hospitality brands over the years. The agency, founded in 2004 by Carl Johnson and Johnny Vulkan, among others, has built a reputation for brand-building work that tends toward the earnest rather than the ironic.

The first work from the new arrangement is expected later this year, presumably before the busy holiday travel season, when Americans will once again discover that the friendly skies are friendlier in the advertising than in the boarding area.

Original story published in adage.com: "Agency Brief—Alaska Air Group names Anomaly creative AOR - Ad Age"