Launch will bring a fresh creative perspective to [Rent A Center's] new strategic marketing and advertising efforts
Ann Davids, VP Marketing and Advertising, Rent-A-Center

Ann Davids, Rent-A-Center's VP Marketing and Advertising, will be featured in the September print edition of RTO Magazine (subscribe, read online). Davids, a 15 year veteran of the RTO industry, was the the first VP ever hired from outside the company, and the first ever female VP.

In an effort to complete their roster of integrated marketing and advertising resources, Rent-A-Center (RCII) has awarded its creative business to Launch, a Dallas-based advertising agency, following a review.

The agency joins retail marketing management company Razor Competitive Edge (see story) and independent media buying service Carat USA (see story) to round out the new Rent-A-Center marketing partner group.

“Launch will bring a fresh creative perspective to our new strategic marketing and advertising efforts,” said Ann Davids, Rent-A-Center vice president of marketing and advertising. “From the beginning, I was extremely impressed with the strong brand positioning they’ve been able to achieve with their creative product for the other clients on their roster. I know they’ll be able to take the insights that Razor has captured and develop advertising that resonates with our customers.”

In addition to their creative achievements, a powerful track record of key strategic insights gave Launch the edge over agencies in the review. “Launch really understands our current customer and did their homework on finding out how to reach non-users,” said Ms. Davids.

Assigning the work among several partners was part of what Ms. Davids called “unbundling.” “We decided we weren't going to find one shop to meet all of our needs,” she said. “With the alliance in place, we have more best-in-class marketing resources and perspectives to build our business than ever before.”

Started in 2000 as a subsidiary of IPG’s T:M Advertising (formerly Temerlin McClain), Launch spun off as an independent full-service agency in 2002 and is now headquartered in Carrollton, Texas.