Indie agency Heat in San Francisco has been named the new agency of record for discount travel site Hotwire.
Heat will oversee strategy, account planning and creative across all media, including broadcast, mobile, digital and social media. The company also switched media agencies, tapping Interpublic’s UM for media planning and digital buying for the U.S. In Canada, UM will partner with Initiative, also part of Interpublic’s Media Brands, for media planning and digital buying; MDC’s Assembly will continue to handle broadcast and direct-response TV buying for U.S. and Canada. The review was led by AARPartners.
“Hotwire is the type of brand challenge that Heat lives for: passionate, strategic clients making smart product improvements to enable more people to travel more often,” said John Elder, president of Heat. “We have the opportunity to tell the Hotwire story in a surprising way to break though the commoditized [online-travel agency] category, and by partnering with UM, we know we’ll be reaching the right audience in innovative ways.”