Performance workwear brand Dickies has brought on LaForce as its earned communications AOR and H&S as its influencer marketing AOR.
The company selected the two New York-based firms after a multi-month RFP process in which five agencies pitched. Account work began last month, said Dickies’ global CMO, Sarah Crockett.
LaForce and H&S will form a combined team to support the workwear brand’s global marketing and publicity. LaForce is leading consumer, brand and executive communications, and H&S is helming influencer marketing work across platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.
Crockett said the firms’ work will be critical to the success of Dickies’ brand strategy.
“Dickies is a brand based on community, so [they will] further our engagement with…those community members,” she said.
Both agencies supported the brand on the opening day of Dickies Skate Plaza in Fire Station Park in Fort Worth’s Fairmount neighborhood on April 29.
VP Edward Padron is leading the dedicated Dickies team at LaForce, and Luis Braga, senior director of lifestyle and brand engagement, is leading the account team at H&S.
Budget information was not disclosed. Both LaForce and H&S referred to Dickies for comment.
In 2016, Dickies named Imre as its PR AOR, focused on U.S. customers. That relationship ended on March 31.
Crockett said that the work LaForce and H&S are focused on is “quite different in scope” to that of Dickies’ previous agency partners.
Imre chief growth officer Brian Simmons said via email that his firm is proud of its work with Dickies over the past seven years.
“Our team was part of a transformative time for the brand and together we brought Dickies back into mainstream pop culture as an unexpected player in fashion,” Simmons said. “We wish the communications team and their new partners much success in the next chapter, and as brand fans, we’ll be rooting for them.”
Before Imre, the brand worked with Zeno Group and Edelman.
Crockett joined Dickies one year ago from outdoor clothing and gear brand BackCountry.com, where she was CMO. Last September, Marianna Friedman joined the company as global director of PR and corporate communications. Todd Dalhausser was named global brand president at Dickies last month.
Founded in 1922, Dickies’ products are available in more than 100 countries. VF Corporation owns Dickies, along with Vans, The North Face and Timberland. In the company’s fiscal Q3 2022, which ended on December 31 of last year, Dickies revenue fell 16% to $177 million. VF is scheduled to report its fiscal Q4 2022 earnings on May 23.
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