NEW YORK: Fashion brand Baby Phat hired Kaplow as its AOR following an informal review. Doug Zarkin, VP of marketing at Kellwood, which owns Baby Phat, said that throughout 2011, activities planned for the brand will require a seven-figure budget.
Though informal, he said for the review the company talked to “several agencies of vastly different scales.” Previously, the brand had worked with a number of agencies on a project basis.
“When a brand reaches a certain point in its lifestyle where the scale warrants it and the challenges and opportunities that PR presents for the brand necessitates it, it's time to bring on a strong agency partner to augment the [current] PR activities,” he said. “We're looking for Kaplow to harness [our consumer's] boldness and figure out ways in which we can break through the cluttered landscape.”
The agency will handle traditional PR and digital work, and work with Baby Phat and Baby Phat Kidz on evolving their current presence and engagement online.
A press release announcing the new relationship makes no mention of Kimora Lee Simmons, the brand's celebrity co-founder and former owner. According to various media sources, she departed from the brand, which she sold to Kellwood in 2004, this summer.
Neither the agency nor the company immediately returned a follow-up request for comment on whether the timing of the review coincided with Simmons' disaffiliation from the brand.
