Grey Melbourne loses TAC in ‘huge surprise’
Grey Melbourne has lost its oldest and biggest client, Transport Accident Commission Victoria, the agency has announced.
The agency has described the move, which come at the end of a pitch process lasting more than four months as “a huge surprise”.
Over the last quarter century the agency has won a string of awards for its road safety work for TAC. The agency said: “It comes as a huge surprise given the enormous contribution Grey has made to road safety since it began working with the TAC 24 years ago.”
CEO Luke Waldren said: “The people at Grey who have contributed to the work over 24 years should forever hold their heads high for making Victorian roads safer for all.
TAC told Mumbrella that no decision on a winning agency had yet been made, adding” The TAC will make a formal announcement in due course once the process is finalised.” In July this year, JWT was given a brief.
The statement from Grey:
Grey confirmed today that its long-held relationship with the TAC would conclude at the end of 2013. After a competitive statutory review, the TAC has decided to move its advertising business.
It comes as a huge surprise given the enormous contribution Grey has made to road safety since it began working with the TAC 24 years ago. This year alone the Victorian road toll is down 19% year on year.
Grey’s work for TAC has consistently been awarded both locally and internationally for creativity and effectiveness, recently winning at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity and the Asian Marketing Effectiveness awards. And as a result of Grey’s work TAC has always been in the top 3 client rankings in Australia.
Luke Waldren, CEO of Grey Group Australia said “the people at Grey who have contributed to the work over 24 years should forever hold their heads high for making Victorian roads safer for all. Our families and children are safer as a result of the work Grey has done. I am personally honoured to be part of the agency that has had such a profound impact on the people and state of Victoria.”
Waldren said he wished the TAC all the very best and hoped that the new guard at the TAC would maintain the very high benchmark created by Grey.
He finished by saying “our passion for making Victorian roads safer isn’t like a light switch you turn on and off…it’s always on and therefore we look forward to the next review…whenever that may be.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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You did an outstanding job of saving lives.
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Sorry to hear you lost TAC. You have done an amazing job over the last 25 year. There must be a new marketing manager on board.
Well done to all those that worked on it over the years.
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One of the best, most enduring client /agency relationships ever in ad land. Particularly over the last 10 years or so the creative has been outstanding. It is hard to fathom quite why they are moving on.
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Now this really does prove that we’ve messed up our industry. If Grey couldn’t survive this “process” then I pity the rest of us. The new bloke at TAC must wield a good stick. Well done Grey endless great work. I worked their about 2 years ago and I can tell you they didn’t deserve this one. TAC ——> get into the room of mirrors!!!
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Grey have done an outstanding job. All the kpi’s suggest so. Dear client is ‘its just time for a change’ a legitimate reason to do so – or is it fact rather irresponsible?
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If it came as a huge surprise then someone didn’t have their eye on the ball. Complacency strikes again.
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Crash – oh of course because complacency normally results in 24 years of awarded work and road toll reductions. Somehow I don’t think so.
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Whilst I generally concur with my ghost writer please stop posting on my behalf, mine would be far more witty with plenty of spelling and grammatical errors
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That retorspective montage blows me away.
The TAC work has consistently been the best road safety advertising globally for many years. Furthermore, it has progressed as advertising has evolved; from the ‘Bloody Idiot’ TV-led campaigns of the 90s, through to 2010’s gut-wrenching Ripple Effect, which used digital in a very powerful way.
I am very surprised at the loss of the account. Who knows what goes on behind closed doors, but this does smell of change for change’s sake.
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The TAC work was a large reason I was attracted to advertising more than a decade ago (and although a competitor, I had my fingers crossed for Grey on this one). However the grim reality is that Grey’s work was struggling to engage & influence younger drivers & audiences… it’s a very changed landscape. I suspect their inability to properly modernise and truly harness new media may have cost them this one… Nonetheless, hats off to 24 years of work.
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Um…is it just me or does anyone else think the TAC work of the past several years was actually pretty dry and unimaginative. All based on shock value avoiding addressing any actual issues….again there seem to be a lot of advocates and I respect that, but I think far better wok can be done. Time will tell…
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Huge suprise?
This was predictable.
Ho Hum is spot on. The TAC need to be working with an agency that has in-depth capability across all channels and mediums.
Sam V mentioned the Ripple Effect. A great campaign and great digital execution. But that’s about it.. what else have they done of that quality since 2010?
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I worked on the pitch and launch campaign at Grey. It was only supposed to run for 6 weeks over Christmas. 6 years later, I worked as the Marketing Manager at the TAC, and all these years later it holds a special place in my heart for actually having a tangible result.
If you have ever walked into a hospital room, or rehabilitation centre, and talked to someone in an horrific accident, or the family who had lost someone, you too would know what a difference this work (Grey/TAC) has made.
For me, there will never be an account to work on as personally and professionally rewarding as this was.
Sorry to Grey and all who worked on the business.
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Not that huge – c’mon mate do some research…they won a Titanium Lion for integration and a Lion for promo & activation since then. They also did that thingo on Pinterest called how to plan a funeral that made my wife cry like a baby. The last campaign they did with the AFL had so many channels (as you call em) I had damn channel overload. Find me anyone else who gets the Melbourne ivory tower (aka the AFL) to literally wipe the 5 off the 50 meter line (that’ll win gold at Cannes next year) and I’ll fight the real mr Byrnes at Fed Square. They even had Knight doing cartoons in the Herald Sun for christ’s sake. As Grey coined several years ago…You Bloody Idiot! ‘m guessing it’s not that huge after all pal. wink wink.
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MrByrnes, I dont work inthe industry so don’t know much about Tiitanium Lions, Cannes and all that.
And I guess I don’t fall in TAC’s target demographic.
My only source is this site and other industry ones that I like to follow.
I just don’t come across much Grey digital work.
Out of curiosity, who are their clients now?
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Not that huge – I dunno I don’t work in the industry.
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