Advertising Age spotlighted a twist on account assignments, whereby a brand charged its White media agency to conduct a creative review for its first White advertising agency.
Or was it really a twist? It’s not the first time a pitch turned into an exclusive, closed, and clandestine affair—although the scenario offered an uncommon maneuver to maintain the status quo in Adland.
The brand is Humann. Yet the new partnerships appear to favor White humans.
P.S. to Humann: Your self-hype boasts being “The trusted name in cardiovascular health.” Research shows people of color in the US are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease and poor disease outcomes. Did you choose the best media and advertising partners to reach such critical audiences?
How media agency Eden Collective conducted a creative review for one of its clients
By Brian Bonilla
When cardiovascular-health supplement company Humann went looking for its first creative agency of record late last year, it did not hire a consultant or issue a request for proposal. Instead, it took the unusual step of asking its media agency, Eden Collective, to conduct the search.
Launched in 2009, Humann built its business around a supplement called SuperBeets that supports healthy blood pressure. The company has seen strong growth lately, expanding from a limited retail presence to more than 180,000 points of distribution in the past 20 or so months, said CEO and co-founder Joel Kocher. Humann is also diversifying into cardiovascular health more broadly, with cholesterol, blood sugar, omega and CoQ10 products.
“Our aspirations changed. Our ambitions changed. So naturally, the way you run your business has to change along with that,” Kocher said.
Eden was managing Humann’s media when Kocher began reconsidering the company’s in-house creative model. When he laid out his ambitions to Eden CEO and founder Alison Monk over coffee in New York, she was frank: “I don’t think you’re going to get there without an ad agency; a creative agency that can deliver the goods,” she recalled telling Kocher.
Monk initially suggested hiring a search expert. But Kocher persuaded Eden, which it had already entrusted with its strategy and business data, to lead the assignment. (Eden was hired as Humann’s media AOR in February after previously working on a project basis.)
How the process worked
That coffee meeting led to a four-week process that replaced lengthy questionnaires and rounds of pitching with a detailed video briefing and two primary interactions: an initial chemistry meeting designed to become a working session, followed by an in-person presentation by the finalists.
Six independent agencies were initially invited before the field was narrowed to three, with Humann ultimately selecting independent agency WorkInProgress as its creative AOR. Kocher declined to identify the other contenders.
Monk, who felt up to the task because she also spent much of her career on the creative agency side at shops including Grey and Digitas, said the review’s scope was intentionally broad because Humann hadn’t yet determined if it was looking for a long-term creative agency or a shorter-term solution.
“It was an amorphous ask: What do we need?” Monk said. “So we went through a range, and Joel and I sat down and said, ‘OK, let’s look at a couple of folks that skew more project-based, and let’s also look at deeper, more AOR-like partners.’”
The review began in mid-December with a mandate to reach a decision by February, ahead of Humann’s planned retail launch of a broader cardiovascular product suite in April. Monk said Humann’s executives spent “dozens, if not 100 hours” preparing for the process.
Rather than ask agencies to complete what Monk called a “27,000-page RFI,” Eden sent agencies a video featuring Kocher and his executive team, along with supporting materials.
The extensive briefing covered Humann’s history, its origins from research conducted at the University of Texas, its Nobel Prize-winning scientific roots, and information on how nitric oxide—a key ingredient in its products—works. It also detailed the brand’s past creative, evolution from direct-to-consumer to Amazon and retail, recent packaging redesign, consumer research and customer profiles, product expansion, media strategy and competitive landscape.
Agencies had one week to review the material before a two-hour meeting with the company.
“It was a chemistry meeting, but it became a work session because of the information we were given,” said Evan Russack, co-founder and partner at WorkInProgress. “As an agency, we value those moments deeply because they allow us to ask a variety of questions—important backgrounders—but also to determine if this is right for the agency.”
Russack said the video conveyed the leadership team’s personality, passion and communication style while giving agencies unusual access to Humann’s founder and CEO from the outset.
“It was really helpful that a media agency was running the pitch, because we typically have a ton of questions related to media, and we were able to get them all answered,” Russack said.
Each of the three finalists received a $15,000 stipend. WorkInProgress used the money to research consumers’ relationship with the supplement category, then incorporated the findings into its communications strategy and creative, Russack said.
Why WorkInProgress won the pitch
To Monk, WorkInProgress stood out for its “funnel fluency” across different marketing needs. Specifically, she was looking for shops that understood the difference between what she called “salesmanship” versus “showmanship.”
“Brands with high awareness can do more showmanship and only focus on entertainment, because they don’t have to explain who they are and what they do,” Monk said. “We’re talking about a complex product in a quickly commoditized category, with lower-quality value players nipping at their heels.”
The strategic challenge was to make cardiovascular health relevant beyond older consumers or people already managing a medical condition. Humann also sought to differentiate itself in a supplement category where Kocher said few companies have meaningful clinical science. That said, he acknowledged that the company had “over-rotated on science” with previous creative focused on testimonials, especially from doctors and researchers.
All participating agencies argued Humann needed a stronger emotional connection with consumers, Kocher said.
“Our formula was: give me a point of relevancy, give me a benefit—a reason to care. Then give me the science. Then make it credible,” Russack said.
For Kocher, the defining moment came about 10 minutes into the first meeting, when he asked how the agency views the brand. WorkInProgress Creative Director Josh Shelton responded by characterizing Humann’s existing brand personality as “cool Cheerios.” Kocher embraced the comment, which he recognized as “ostensibly an insult,” because it defined the brand as a management tool for an existing condition rather than one relevant to consumers who think proactively about wellness, longevity and performance.
“I thought, ‘Finally, someone had the guts to call it for what it was,’” Kocher said. “For me, that was the defining moment. I’d made up my mind right then. Ten minutes in, it was game over.”
Kocher actually bought a box of Cheerios that he planned to send the agency—but WorkInProgress beat him to it. Two days after the meeting, a package arrived at Humann via FedEx, with Cheerios boxes decorated with what Kocher described as “cool Ray-Ban shades” stickers.
The process also convinced Kocher that Humann needed an AOR rather than a project shop.
The first campaign, backed by an investment “approaching $50 million,” according to Kocher, will break in early October.
Monk said Eden does not intend to turn agency reviews into a business line. Its role grew from its knowledge of Humann and its position as a strategic marketing partner, she said.
Russack had not previously encountered a creative review run by a media agency, but said he wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes more common.
“We’re all looking for really good partners who have subject-matter expertise we don’t possess, and have a working style that matches ours so we can deliver results for brands,” he said.
