Wieden+Kennedy could be on the path to become a colos­sus among online adver­tis­ing agen­cies, after enter­ing the run­ning for a Super Bowl spot for the world’s most famous cook­ie, Oreo.

A mas­sive turn­ing point beckons

As the more informed ad agency copy­writ­ers, art direc­tors and account man­agers will know, W+K seized a major oppor­tu­ni­ty less than two years ago when Kraft Foods hired it for a Velvee­ta cam­paign.  If this lat­est ven­ture pays off, get­ting the chance to show­case its cre­ative ener­gies for a major brand at a mar­quee slot in the TV world’s most expen­sive event could amount to a mas­sive turn­ing point.

That Kraft con­nec­tion has been rather good for the agency, it seems.  Oreo is now mar­ket­ed by Mon­delez, a Kraft spin­off, and this year marks the brand’s one hun­dred year anniver­sary, hence the deci­sion to go for the Super Bowl.  W+K hasn’t got the job in the bag yet, how­ev­er, and is fac­ing a for­mi­da­ble rival in Draft­fcb, the agency that has presided over the year-long cen­ten­ni­al cam­paign for Mondelez.

Skill­ful han­dling of small projects can lead to great things

How­ev­er, W+K’s han­dling of the Velvee­ta Cheesy Skil­lets brand, which it took on in March 2011, has not gone unno­ticed.  The mix of TV spots backed by social mar­ket­ing and online ads turned out to be a hit for Kraft, plac­ing the prod­uct in the food manufacturer’s top ten launch­es for 2011 and sweep­ing up an impres­sive 8 per­cent of the dry din­ner mix cat­e­go­ry in just three months.  Kraft has shown its plea­sure by award­ing addi­tion­al assign­ments to the Port­land-head­quar­tered agency, like Velvee­ta Shells & Cheese.

The agency also has a big sup­port­er in Mon­delez’s svp of mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy, Dana Ander­son, who for­mer­ly act­ed in the same role at Kraft and was respon­si­ble for hir­ing W+K in the first place.

Ms Ander­son is keen on small­er, high­ly cre­ative agen­cies and has brought oth­ers into the fold beside W+K.  More­over, she has a very direct influ­ence over Oreo and has been impressed with W+K’s flair.

Mon­delez has the means to exper­i­ment with alter­na­tive agen­cies to find the one with the best approach for the brand in ques­tion.  As it hap­pens, W+K has more expe­ri­ence with the Super Bowl than Draft­fcb, and could well be head­ing for their biggest moment.