Revolution has been named the agency of record for Shred-It, a win that will see the Toronto-based firm handle the growing global brand’s marketing strategy.
The announcement comes after Shred-It acquired Iron Mountain’s shredding business in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and follows a merger with Cintas, a North American document destruction company.
“We couldn’t be more excited and enthusiastic for this opportunity to contribute to this incredible company’s future,” said Marcus Wiseman, partner and strategic lead at Revolution.
Following its mergers and acquisitions, Shred-It now serves 400,000 customers in 18 countries. It is also mulling an IPO with a US$2-billion target.
The account win follows a month-long agency review process that included four unnamed firms total (three Canadian and one from the U.K.) and required Revolution to make two presentations—one focusing on credentials and a second that laid out a targeted plan, said Wiseman.
However, he said that no creative was submitted on spec.
“Shred-it is a tightly managed, metrics-driven business, so the focus of the review centered around finding an agency that understood business and understood how marketing communications can drive it forward,” Wiseman told Marketing.
“But now they are truly a global brand–18 countries–-and so they felt it was time to align their brand platform and global brand positioning with an AOR,” said Wiseman.
When asked how Shred-It’s growing global business will affect the marketing strategy, Wiseman said laws around security and privacy vary from country to country.
“So our initial job is to find and articulate the brand’s universal truth across each of their markets,” he said.
Bruce Andrew, Shred-It’s executive vice-president of marketing and customer experience, said the company was seeking an agency that could do more than just create ads.
“We wanted an agency partner that has considerable experience growing global brands; not only strategically and creatively focused, but business focused. This relationship is about helping us grow our business–not just making advertising–and Revolution demonstrated they understand business.”
