Sprint’s advertising, over the years, has ranged from fairly tame magazine ads for new phones to absolutely zany, literal bill-slashing affairs on national television. Their marketing has never been too far out-there, however; experiential advertising, for example, has never matched the over the top antics of Red Bull or the comfy and sometimes heartwarming setups used by Samsung. Ad industry veteran Christopher Ian Bennett is looking to change that and give Sprint a whole new creative direction. To that end, he will be appointed the Executive Creative Director of the company and head up new sub-entity YellowFan Studios. Sprint called his award-winning 20 year career in public relations “as eclectic as it is unique.”
After stints at Best Buy and Guitar Center, Bennett wound up at Sprint in 2015 as their director of innovation and creative media. Effective immediately, he will be running the internal ad agency, along with a staff of 30 new hires, a team which is slated to grow to 60 in the near future. A separate entity for an ad studio and putting fresh blood into said agency show that Sprint is fairly serious about changing their creative direction and thus their image. Bennett is supposed to move the company’s creative pursuits in new directions with a revamp of their entire creative strategy. This move comes as Sprint looks to cut costs just about everywhere, saying that they have succeeded recently in cutting about 12% of their total marketing expenses and that they plan to continue doing so.
Roger Solé is still in charge of marketing, but will presumably be working very closely with Bennett, since media creation and marketing are very closely tied. Sprint spokespeople refused to comment on what the direction of the company’s new creative vision may be, or what initiatives may or may not already be underway. Separate agencies Deutsch and Alma will be retained for specialized marketing. The new studio, headed by Bennett, will be handling Sprint’s overall creative direction, essentially dictating what message they want Sprint’s advertisers to send. YellowFan will also be in charge of internal media creation in all forms, including print and television ads.