DraftFCB, Auckland wins $20m Vodafone brand account; AffinityID wins CRM duties
February 24 2012, 4:30 pm | | 18 Comments
Vodafone announced today that, after a competitive pitch proces, it has selected DraftFCB as its preferred brand agency and AffinityID as its preferred specialist CRM agency.
Incumbent Colenso BBDO had held the business for five years.
Chief Marketing Officer Greg Campbell says the team at Vodafone were impressed by the quality of all the submissions.
18 Comments
I really hope Greg is OK. Let him tell his cows before they read this. Please.
Say what?
2 out of 2 to FCB! Damn. You guys are just killing it!
Are not as stupid as I once thought. So fucking lucky for them that they did not pick Ogilvy… Ot maybe that was an easy decision.
FCB are on FIRE!!!
Nothing against FCB, there’s a lot of good, smart people there, but they’re not exactly at the top of their game creatively. The most creative agencies didn’t even make the pitch list for Vodafone. It’s sad that more and more large clients seem to be going for the safe and boring route instead of fighting for and believing in creativity. Let’s not forget that both Air NZ and Vodafone were Colenso clients before they moved to .99. If Marketers in NZ don’t believe in the power of creativity or don’t have the balls to back a truly creative idea then I think NZ is heading towards just being an adopt and adapt market.
With that said, of the three agencies in the pitch, Vodafone definitely chose the best agency, so congrats FCB.
It probably didn’t help 99’s chances that they tried to sue them for half a mill. Not the smartest way of trying to win a pitch.
Your sister company sabotages your pitch. Weird but true. Ironic given that money men run the company.
@Sad – ‘..not exactly at the top of their game creatively..’ what patronising crap. DraftFCB (and no I don’t work there) produce plenty of award winning work which people enjoy watching and reading. That’s why advertisers like Air New Zealand and Vodafone choose to work with them. This isn’t about ‘safe and boring’ this is about effective distinctive work and there’s plenty of that coming out of DraftFCB at present. Hats off to Bryan, James and all the team.
Yep, in times like this, effectiveness awards win clients. And DFCB have a cupboard full of them.
‘Not at the top of their game creatively.’
I get it. So what you’re saying is that it’s people like you who are tunnelling away up their own rear ends for vainglorification, who are at the top of their game.
Gotcha.
Keep tunnelling matey. Hope you find a little nugget while you’re there.
I agree with Not at all Sad. Pretty big call. Draft’s work is up there with any agency in NZ, with the possible exception of DDB, in my opinion. Feel pretty sorry for 99 though. A great group of people who were shat on by their relations at College Hill. Commiserations to anyone there who can’t move across to FCB.
James – were you up at College Hill to know what actually went on? I doubt it, because if you were you would not be making baseless comments like above. Stop commentating on hear say and if you want to offer an opinion, make it an educated one. Colenso were also royally screwed in all this and didn’t deserve the treatment they received either – including a pitch going on behind their backs for weeks and a highly dishonest client who behaved appallingly.
They are also a ‘great group of people’ and a lot of them lost their jobs as a result of what went down. And in yet another completely inaccurate statement, they actually got out of the way in order to keep the business in the Clemenger group. Not an easy thing to do under any circumstances.
So focus on congratulating Draft and stay off subjects that you have zero factual knowledge of.
Sorry. I agree in hindsight that ‘shat on’ was probably too sweeping a term. And it most definitely wasn’t meant to encompass all of the many talented and friendly people who work at Colenso, and definitely not those who lost their jobs as a result of the account move. I should have said ‘had their submission compromised by the pursuits of senior Group management’.
The people that I know at Colenso and 99 and all shit heads who thought they were above everyone else… And that is something that seems to go from the top down. They have all got what they richly deserve. It’s called humble pie people… Go on, don’t be shy. EAT IT.
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Vodafone and Air NZ are under pressure. Draft are going to have to soak this up like a sponge. Good luck to you. You are going to need it. Changing agencies does not change business realities for these new clients.
Give it 6 months and a new agency won’t make any difference to their bottom lines – they never do but a change will deflect internal heat for their respective marketing departments….for a while at least.
What has happened high up on College Hill? Two huge losses, and a third on the way?