The wireless carrier T-Mobile has hired Highdive and Anomaly to handle creative duties, in what appears to be an expansion of the agency relationships for a marketer that has long favored the bold and the magenta.
The moves come at a time when the telecommunications category finds itself in one of its periodic bouts of competitive anxiety, with carriers jockeying for position as consumer loyalty proves as fleeting as a strong signal in a parking garage. T-Mobile, which has built its brand on a kind of cheerful pugnaciousness under the stewardship of its former chief executive John Legere and his successors, has historically consolidated much of its creative work but now appears to be widening the bench.
Highdive, the Chicago-based independent shop founded in 2016 by former Leo Burnett executives, has made a name for itself with work that tends toward the populist and the comedic. Anomaly, part of the Stagwell empire, brings a different pedigree — the agency has long positioned itself as something more than a traditional advertising shop, with interests in brand building and intellectual property that extend beyond the thirty-second spot.
(Whether two agencies with rather different creative philosophies will find themselves in productive collaboration or productive competition remains to be seen.)
The hiring of multiple agencies to serve a single large client has become something of a trend in recent years, as marketers seek both the benefits of creative tension and the practical advantages of having more hands available when the next campaign needs to ship yesterday. T-Mobile, which spends heavily on advertising and has shown a willingness to be conspicuous about it, would seem a natural candidate for such an arrangement.
Representatives for T-Mobile, Highdive and Anomaly could not immediately be reached for comment, or at least not before deadline intervened.
Original story published in adage.com: "T-Mobile hires Highdive and Anomaly - Ad Age"