CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp said on Thursday it has selected a team at WPP Plc as its global advertising agency of record after it put its account up for review in January amid repeated blows to its brand.
The second-largest U.S. bank also said Interpublic Group of Companies'
Bank of America spends about $2 billion a year on marketing, according to a source familiar with the situation. It last put its account up for review in 2006. The following year it debuted its current "Bank of Opportunity" tagline, which replaced its "Higher Standards" campaign.
Since that review, Bank of America has added the Merrill Lynch brokerage force and has become more global. But it has also seen its brand tarnished by government bailouts, a falling stock price and an ill-fated attempt to implement a $5 per-month debit card fee last fall.
Bank of America said Starcom USA, a unit of Publicis Groupe SA
(Reporting by Rick Rothacker; Editing by Bernard Orr)
