Toysrus.com Selects D’Arcy/Los Angeles as Ad Agency

Toysrus.com, the online arm of the
popular toy retailer , on Monday tapped D’Arcy/Los Angeles to be its agency of
record, crafting its advertising message for the all-important
fourth-quarter holiday shopping season.

Toysrus.com made the selection after a competitive review. D’Arcy is charged
with the dealing with the strategic and creative aspects of Toysrus.com’s
campaign. Its sister unit, MediaVest, will handle media planning for the
advertising effort while Starcom will continue to coordinate the media
buying. The company’s budget and overall media strategy has not yet been
finalized.

“Our ability to leverage the power of the Toys ‘R’ Us brands will be a
primary focus of our online marketing efforts,” said Greg Ahearn, vice
president, marketing, Toysrus.com.

“We were very impressed with D’Arcy’s understanding of how we can integrate
the bricks and mortar assets into our program. They have the right mix of
branding experience and creativity that we were looking for.”

Toysrus.com was, at one point, the poster child for how offline brands were
stumbling out of the Internet starting block. It had troubles with financing
and partnerships as it prepared to go online, but in recent months it has
begun to win more respect in the industry. In terms of unique visitor
traffic, Toysrus.com was the number one online toy e-commerce site in April
and May 2000, according to Media
Metrix.

This marks the second major new business win for D’Arcy/Los Angeles in the
last six months. The agency won the Activision business in February.