Bears Choose Two By Four For First Brand Campaign In Decade

Bears Select Two By Four, Chicago To Work On Brand Campaign

The Bears have selected Two by Four, Chicago, to "develop the team's first brand campaign in more than a decade," according to Lewis Lazare of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. Two by Four beat out seven other local agencies, finally earning the account over Romani Bros. Bears Senior Dir of Corporate Communications Scott Hagel said that the team last worked with an agency, Beyond DDB, when the club moved games to the Univ. of Illinois in Champaign during renovations to Soldier Field in '02. However, he said that those efforts were "more informational and did not involve a full-blown brand campaign." Lazare reports the Bears include corporate promotions, community outreach, special events and radio and TV programs as "part of a total marketing effort." Two by Four was the White Sox' agency of record until White Sox VP & CMO Brooks Boyer "initiated a review last summer." Two by Four President & Creative Dir David Stevenson said that the brand campaign, likely to launch this summer, "probably won't be the same spec concept his agency presented to Bears executives during the review." Lazare: "Clearly, the Two by Four campaign will have to rev up a lot of loyal fans who were frustrated by a disappointing season in 2007."

BULLS: Meanwhile, Lazare reports while Bulls ad agency DiMeo & Co., Chicago, will remain the team's agency of record, Tom Dick & Harry (TD&H), Chicago, will "create the radio campaign" for the '08-09 season. Sources said that the TD&H radio efforts will "probably be made to mesh with DiMeo's new campaign via the overarching tagline DiMeo will create for next season" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 3/26).