Entertainment and gaming company Ubisoft has chosen UM as its U.S. media agency of record after a competitive review that started in late 2016. The IPG Mediabrands network’s San Francisco office will handle planning and buying duties for the company, which is best known for the Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Just Dance game series. “The impressive and thorough work by UM made it an easy decision to select them as our agency,” read a statement from Ubisoft’s vp of media and audience management Vanessa Vignon. “We look forward to our collaboration and successful new campaigns ahead.” UM U.S. CEO Kasha Cacy said the gaming company thoroughly reviewed each competing agency’s capabilities: “Our model has been to take a very data-led, analytical approach. That was appealing to such a digital company.” She added, “We have a team [in San Francisco] that is passionate about gaming, and we’re really exited to tackle it.” In the coming months, Ubisoft will release several major titles including Just Dance 2018, Assassin’s Creed Origins and Far Cry 5. “The targeting will be different for each game,” Cacy said. “There’s a pretty big difference between the audience for Assassin’s Creed and Just Dance.” This sentiment is very much in keeping with a 2016 collaboration between the company and Facebook’s gaming team that sought to split gamers into distinct groups using the social network’s segmentation tools. At this time, it is unclear which agencies competed against UM for the business. Ubisoft’s last official U.S. media review occurred nearly a decade ago, with Publicis Groupe’s Zenith Media winning the business. Havas won global duties on the account in mid-2015 but lost it to GroupM only four months into its contract. UM’s wins in 2017 include fashion brand Coach, streaming service Hulu and the B2B division of international consultancy Accenture. Ubisoft currently works with a variety of creative agencies on broadcast and digital campaigns. The company spent $30 million on domestic measured media in 2016 and just under $10 million during the first quarter of this year, according to Kantar Media.
Media agency UM has been chosen by Ubisoft to handle planning and buying duties for the company, before the release of Just Dance 2018, Assassin’s Creed Origins and Far Cry 5. The decision concluded a competitive review that started in late 2016 and was Ubisoft's first in a decade. "Our model has been to take a very data-led, analytical approach. We have done this with all our major franchises over the last 10 years," said CEO Yves Guillemot.