ST. LOUIS — Panera Bread Co. has chosen Anomaly to be its lead creative agency. The responsibilities for Anomaly, a multidisciplinary marketing firm/advertising agency based in New York, will range from brand positioning to creative strategy and development.

“Panera and Anomaly’s success have come from anticipating where the customer is going and addressing their needs in new and innovative ways,” said Michael Simon, executive vice-president and chief marketing officer of Panera. “Anomaly is rethinking what it means to be a communications company in an increasingly complex marketing landscape — focusing on big ideas instead of the constraints of traditional 30 second spots. We value this sort of disruption. It has been the key to the relevancy of our own brand.”

Anomaly will be Panera’s third ad agency in two years. Previously, Cramer-Krasselt and Mullen were responsible for the company’s marketing.

Anomaly is expected to debut in the first half of 2015, and will begin to support Panera Bread nationally from its New York office in September 2014. The agency ranked No. 5 onAd Age's2014 Agency A-List.