The £35m account was with Lowe & Partners until the beginning of this month, when Heineken announced the split without giving any official reason. However, Garfinkel had been creative chief at Lowe & Partners before leaving for D'Arcy in August last year. Since then, it had been widely tipped that the Heineken account would follow Garfinkel to D'Arcy.
Heineken retained Lowe & Partners on the account for four years, during which time its advertisements won several awards.
D'Arcy, part of the B|Com3 Group, will be retained by Heineken USA as agency of record and will also take responsibility for the brand for Heineken International. MediaVest USA, also part of the same holding company, has been hired for the US media-planning and buying work. The assignment will include work on the Amstel Light brand.
Work will be run from D'Arcy's New York office, starting on March 1. Heineken continues to use Lowe & Partners for its UK creative work.
John Farrell, president and CEO D'Arcy Worldwide, said: "Clearly brands of the stature of Heineken and Amstel Light do not come around often, so we could not be more excited about this appointment."
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