FREEPORT (AP) – L.L. Bean has formed a new advertising alliance, partnering with agencies with greater online marketing expertise, the company said.

L.L. Bean is in the process of completing a deal worth more than $20 million with two agencies that bring to the table both traditional advertising experience as well as digital and online expertise, said Rich Donaldson, L.L. Bean’s spokesman.

The team consists of JWT – a New York-based advertising agency – and MEC Interaction – a company with digital experience, he said.

L.L. Bean was looking for an advertising agency with experience in Web marketing as well as someone who can integrate L.L. Bean’s three retail channels: its catalogs, its retail stores and its fast-growing online division, Donaldson said.

The company has no plans to drop its catalogs as the chief marketing tool. But online sales have become increasingly important and are expected to overtake catalog sales this year.

“We were looking at two things out of a new agency: Number one is new energy; the second is a proficiency and a commitment to multichannel marketing,” he said.

Minneapolis-based Martin/Williams, which held L.L. Bean’s advertising account for three years, chose not to submit a proposal when L.L. Bean announced it was putting its advertising contract out for additional proposals.

L.L. Bean has recognized the need for adding more zing to its conservative image. Before retiring as president, Leon Gorman, grandson of founder Leon Leonwood Bean, said the company needed to sell the “sizzle, not just the steak.”

As online sales grow, it’s essential for L.L. Bean to find “a new voice to communicate with Web-shoppers,” said Wendy Liebmann, president of WSL Strategic Retail, a retail consulting firm in New York.

“It’s critical that L.L. Bean translates its values and heritage into a new medium; one that works with core shoppers and potential shoppers; one that tells its story in a contemporary way but that doesn’t lose its uniqueness and history,” she said.

Adweek first reported the winning team of JWT and MEC Interaction in late September. Bean has been ironing out the details since then.

The new relationship comes too late for major changes in Bean’s national advertising strategy for this holiday season. Instead, changes could begin to take shape over the winter and next spring, Donaldson said.

L.L. Bean’s online sales represent the fastest-growing channel for the company, which had more than $1.3 billion in sales last year.

But it isn’t scaling back on its catalogs, which are being used to drive traffic to the Web site as well as generate sales. And the company is still looking to expand its reach through retail stores, as well.

In Freeport, Bean is considering an expansion that would include a 500- to 600-space parking garage and a new L.L. Bean storefront on Main Street, as well as an expanded distribution center to accommodate growing sales.