General Mills has named food marketing specialist Ingredient as its content marketing agency of record (AOR), per a press release. Both companies are based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the appointment evolves a long-standing relationship, according to Ingredient.
“[This] is a natural next step for our relationship with General Mills,” said Brian Brown, president and chief creative officer of Ingredient, in a statement. “We’re excited to now be able to fully leverage our services and capabilities as General Mills' trusted partner, and don’t take the responsibility of leading content for these historic brands lightly.”
Ingredient has previously supported General Mills’ digital marketing around its Box Tops for Education program and handled work for individual company brands, including Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Old El Paso, Annie’s Homegrown and Lucky Charms. As AOR, the firm’s purview is expanding to oversee content strategy more holistically for General Mills. Duties span developing website content, channel planning, editorial production, email marketing and deployment and marketing technology integrations.
Founded in 1994, Ingredient said it has doubled its size over the past few years and is today comprised of more than 55 employees in areas like design, copywriting, photography and videography. The locally based company boasts an in-house production studio and staffed chefs who shore up its culinary positioning.
The news comes as General Mills shakes up other aspects of its agency roster at a transitional point for the packaged foods industry, which is contending with inflation and changing consumer habits coming out of the pandemic. In March, the marketer placed its global media business under review after years of working with WPP’s Mindshare, Ad Age previously reported.
General Mills has also realigned some of its internal marketing structure as digital and data-driven capabilities become bigger mandates to tackle. The company in 2021 promoted Doug Martin to chief brand and disruptive growth officer, an attempt to more closely wed brand operations with innovation.
