ASB appoints The Monkeys and Accenture Interactive NZ as new agency of record
ASB has appointed The Monkeys and Accenture Interactive as its new agency of record with the bank signing on as the agency’s foundational client in New Zealand.
The appointment follows a competitive pitch process which saw expressions of interest from a wide range of high calibre brand, marketing and digital agencies.
The Monkeys and Accenture Interactive will work alongside existing media and search agency partners to deliver a number of services for ASB, including creative, strategy, digital experience and innovation.
ASB brand and marketing practice lead Shane Evans says the agency group is the right partner as ASB looks to deliver on its digital and data ambitions: “We were very impressed with The Monkeys and Accenture Interactive team through the pitching process and the ideas they put forward and I’m confident the combination of this creativity with the group’s strong digital credentials will help ASB to stay one step ahead.
“We are committed to continuing to evolve our award-winning marketing automation capability to deliver best in class customer communications. Accenture Interactive is an internationally recognised leader in innovation and the expertise its team brings will help inform the evolution of our marketing, and help us to stay ahead of the curve.”
Says Mark Green, The Monkeys co-founder and group CEO and Accenture Interactive ANZ lead: “ASB is driven by a passion for its customers and helping them live life one step ahead by providing simple, meaningful ways to help them improve their financial wellbeing, today and tomorrow. The bank champions fresh thinking and we are delighted to help them continue to be innovative and grow.
“We are truly excited to have ASB as our foundation client here in Auckland and we look forward to working with the team to deliver creativity and stand out solutions to help them grow even further.”
Evans acknowledged incumbent agency Dentsu Creative (WiTH Collective) for its support: “We would like to thank the team at WiTH Collective who have been a great partner to ASB for the past four years and through this RFP process. WiTH has worked closely with our team as we set our current brand strategy and have done some tremendous work.
“This decision however has been about looking at the broader set of skills required to take us forward and we felt The Monkeys and Accenture Interactive were the right fit.”
The new contract takes effect 1 September.
25 Comments
A massive congrats to Damon and Justin, excited to see what comes out of it.
Didn’t see that coming…..
You can’t have one without the other.
Meridian I hear. Poor Dentsu losing their two biggest clients.
Hopefully Monkeys perform better than Droga did on landing ASB as a foundation client ?
actually the real one
Well, I picked that wrong!
Normally I’d encourage the winning agency to head out for a slap up lunch that lurches well into the next morning.
I guess that’ll have to wait.
I’ll open a bottle of Marbec to celebrate and await the invitation to the winning lunch post-lockdown.
Welcome, Monkeys, condolences Dentsu.
Feels a bit harsh, but you never know the real reasons. But that’s the game, I suppose.
Well done boys. This is great news.
Born free song again?
Well done Monkeys. Poor old Dentsu, loosing big clients as well as senior and talented staff as well.
With never replaced the ECD they started with and Dentsu never invested in one after Catmur… so just not competitive creatively. ?
How long will ASB stick with this agency? Id set odds of another pitch in 2 years time when yet again another agency doesn’t live up to the worst clients level of expectations and used as scapegoats for an incompetence marketing department.
6 agencies in 9 years? Whybins, D5, Saatchi, True, With, Monkeys…
this doesnt seem to be about creative work not delivering given ASB work is really really good in market at the moment and in the press release they even say Ben and Amy will stay.
I dont think any ECD will be able to help with eDMs and automated direct comms nor would any actually want to.
Not competitive creatively? With respect, Ben and Amy has been a big hit, and getting the All Blacks to do ads for small businesses was a great idea.
What do you mean not competitive creatively?! YUM
Will I still have a job?
It’s been a few years but we got back on Agency Tinder and swiped right and what do you know… we got a match.
… besides Damon and Justin, actually works at The Monkeys NZ?
I suggest it was more the australian office that appealed to ASB. Its their arrogance shining through in that their belief is that no Kiwi agency could possibly deliver to the level they require.
its why they went with WITH last time around.
its amazing that one head of marketing could go through that many agnecies during his tenure.
Who works at The Monkeys? Me and my wife Amy, hopefully – bought a house and have a lot of ducks so need to keep them in a row.
Bumper tomato crop this year, too.
Is ASB the most hated client in the industry ? Incredible really
Damon and Justin are the hottest agency in town, and they haven’t even written anything as lowly as a rate change EDM. Ewww…I just said EDM.
It is terrible people were let go at Dentsu, but the writing has been in the wall for a long time.
And, yes, this client might be the worst in Auckland (I’ve had worse). I’ve heard some tales, but I won’t lurch into repaying them, what’s the point?
A decade or so ago they were the best client in town. But then changes happened and it lost its way.
That’s because they didn’t stand for anything. They became blah. Yellow blah.
But when it comes to banks I have little idea what they all stand for – other than what colour they ‘own’.
But back to Dentsu. A quick look at the Dentsu website reveals a top heavy agency with little focus on creative. Lots of jargon and meaningless phrases more suitable for a LinkedIn post. It’s not inspiring stuff. It’s not a good ad for them. Lambs, slaughter.
I feel for the people let go. Incredibly stressful. My heart goes out to them. I wish them all well. Especially their families.
ASB is a small agency killer, they rip and burn and leave husks. The Monkeys will need another big big client fast to make their operation viable or they’ll end up like Droga. While they’re finding that client it’ll be extremely boring doing nothing but bank work, basically one good brief a year if you’re lucky. On the upside they’ll get good mortgage rates.
Booorrrnnn freeee. I hope that sticks in your head for the rest of the year.