Today we announce that Kumon selected Mullen’s North Carolina office as North American agency-of-record following a competitive review that began with 13 agencies. Mullen will handle advertising, media, PR, CRM, direct, digital and social media marketing. New creative is expected to launch in early 2010.

For those who may not know, Kumon is the world’s largest after-school education company. Their learning method uses a systematic individualized approach that helps children develop a solid command of math and reading skills. Through daily practice and mastery of materials, students increase confidence, improve concentration, and develop better study skills. Kumon has 26,000 Kumon Centers in 46 countries and more than four million students studying worldwide.

“Mullen demonstrated a clear understanding of Kumon North America, where we are currently, where we want to go and a compelling roadmap to help us get there,” said Jim Coakley, Branding Leader at Kumon.

“Partnering with Kumon is a great opportunity for us to help a company develop lifelong learning skills in children,” said John Fitzgerald, president of Mullen North Carolina. “It was easy for us to pour our hearts and souls into this worthy business.”

Agency will partner with premium distillery to build transformative company and spirits brands from the ground up

Continuing a long tradition of working with entrepreneurial and category-changing companies, Mullen has been named the first agency-of-record for hoodoo spirits, a Tennessee-based company developing a line of premium spirits for distribution in the United States and beyond. Hoodoo chose Mullen following a review of 10 agencies from coast to coast. Hoodoo will deploy Mullen’s full arsenal of capabilities, including advertising creative, digital, media, analytics, PR, product design and naming, to build a new, transformative spirits company. Mullen will now be involved from the early planning stages of construction to in-market launch planning and future new product development.

“This isn’t just about creating an ad campaign,” said Mark Wenneker, executive creative director at Mullen. “This is about helping to invent a brand and build a company from the ground up. Hoodoo has the guts and passion to do some amazing things. We can’t wait.”

“Hoodoo spirits is devoted to creating a world-class portfolio of spirits brands,” said Frank Coyle, CEO of hoodoo, “And it is axiomatic to say that branding is of paramount importance in the beverage alcohol industry. Mullen boldly expressed a creative vision that captured our emerging brand in a tangible, active, transcendent way. Simply put, Mullen wasn’t afraid of displaying its depth of talent and its passion for hoodoo. In the end, choosing Mullen as our agency-of- record was clear and compelling because Mullen demonstrated partnership ability — mutual risk-taking in the pursuit of a common goal. Now, with Mullen as our partner, we’re confident of our success.”

Mullen has a long history of launching and building entrepreneurial brands, including such iconic brands as Smartfood, Inc. magazine, Monster.com and LendingTree, among others.

“Hoodoo has all of the ingredients for success: strong, visionary leadership; a captivating idea; and the passion and determination to make their brands successful,” said Tom Jump, managing partner at Mullen. “From day one, we connected with the hoodoo leadership team and their unique culture. To be able to partner with them in the creation of a great company is what every great agency would want. And it’s our goal to have a long-term partnership that will reshape the spirits marketing model.”

About hoodoo spirits
hoodoo is a new spirits company based in Tennessee, the heartland of the American spirits industry. The company has been formed to develop, manufacture and market a portfolio of world-class spirits brands. Hoodoo was started by a group of five successful business executives and entrepreneurs with a bold vision to create a new kind of spirits company. To follow their developments, go to www.hoodoospirits.com.