COACH CHANGES AD AGENCIES: Coach Inc. has taken the next step of its evolution to its advertising campaigns. WWD has learned that the accessories-centric company has parted ways with its creative agency Laird + Partners, hiring Baron & Baron instead. The switch was confirmed by Coach, which declined to comment further. The change in agencies is part of a larger transformation at Coach under the new team of chief executive officer Victor Luis and executive creative director Stuart Vevers.
Vevers, whose first collection for Coach made its debut in February, tapped Fabien Baron’s firm for the brand’s fall campaign, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. Prior to that, Trey Laird’s agency had handled Coach’s last three campaigns. Vevers’ predecessor, Reed Krakoff, had brokered the deal with Laird before departing Coach to work on his namesake label last year. Prior to Laird, Coach was doing all its creative work in-house.
Laird declined to comment.
In terms of dollars, it’s estimated that the cost of a campaign ranges from $500,000 to $1 million, of which the return on investment is in the ballpark of 10 percent for the creative agency. In plain speak, Laird most likely lost between $50,000 to $100,000 on the fall campaign, which isn’t earth-shattering — and Laird has plenty of other clients, including Gap, Target, Diane von Furstenberg and the Council of Fashion Designers of America.