Pitch Watch: Ladbrokes moves creative; Twinings’ new creative; Draftstars’ appoints for online drive; Shout wins two new accounts
Mumbrella casts an eye over the major media, creative and public relations pitches at play in market.
In this week’s wrap-up: Ladbrokes completes review; Twinings picks new creative agency; Draftstars launches fantasy drive; Repco names digital agency; Office of Liquor & Gaming NSW appoints new agency.
Ladbrokes bets on Saatchi
Saatchi & Saatchi will enter the ultra-competitive gaming field after being named by Ladbrokes as its new agency.
The win comes on the back of the full creative review for the brand and just weeks after the appointment of Simon Jarvis as the new CMO, replacing James Burnett.
Ladbrokes CEO Dean Shannon said the company was focused on continuing innovate.
“Following a competitive pitch process we’ve appointed Saatchi & Saatchi as our creative agency partner,” Shannon said.
“At Ladbrokes we continually endeavour to be first to market with new products and innovations and the brand platform and campaign presented by Saatchi & Saatchi will help us to continue to change the game.”
Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Michael Rebelo said he was looking forward to working in the highly competitive category.
“We’re excited to be appointed by Ladbrokes, they’re a great team of people with an ambitious vision for their brand that we can help drive with creativity,” Rebelo said.
Twinings: new partner will “challenge the brand”
Leo Burnett has been awarded the Twinings tea brand after a competitive pitch. The agency will work on strategic development as well as build a new creative foundation for the brand.
Twining’s marketing director, Gavin Vandeligt, said the company was looking for an agency that would challenge the brand. “We wanted an agency partner who could challenge us and evolve our communications platform to continue the strong growth momentum,” Vandeligt said.
“Leo Burnett Sydney has shown they can deliver the world-class creative and strategic output and impact we are looking for.”
Pete Bosilkovski, CEO of Leo Burnett, said the agency would look to build on Twinings’ leadership in the market.
Clemenger to drive fantasy sports
Draftstars, the joint-venture fantasy sports venture between Fox Sports and CrownBet, has drafted Clemenger BBDO Melbourne to launch its online sports drive.
The fantasy platform is currently a fantasy AFL competition with plans to include other sports in its mix over coming months.
Draftstars is aiming to differentiate itself from other fantasy sports leagues by not locking players into a season-long contest, instead, allowing them to play in daily or weekly contests.
Draftstars CEO Matt Sanders said the the appointment of the agency was an important step in the evolution of the brand.
“It is rare to have the opportunity to not only launch a new brand but also a new category, and we are lucky to be working with some of the best creative minds in the country at Clemenger BBDO Melbourne to do so,” Sanders said.
Clemenger BBDO Melbourne CEO, Nick Garrett, said the account would be a new challenge for the agency. “Draftstars has put together a brilliant team with big ambitions. They have a very healthy appetite for great ideas and we are looking forward to launching what will be an incredible new brand onto the Australian market,” Garrett said.
Repco adds to its roster
Digital agency Shout has won two now accounts, with Repco and National Tiles both joining the business.
Shout will manage SEO for Repco in Australia and New Zealand while it will also handle SEO, paid search, social and blogging for National Tiles.
Michael Jenkins, director of Shout, said the agency was excited to be working with two nationally recognised brands.
Newcomer United Yeah winning already
Newly-formed agency United Yeah has kickstarted its business by winning a key campaign for Liquor & Gaming NSW to promote Responsible Gambling Awareness Week.
The campaign will focus on the friends and families of problem gamblers and will run across cinema, print social and mobile.
Jenny Crocker, senior communications officer with the Office of Liquor, Gaming & Racing NSW, said the agency was taking the department into new areas after using mobile and social on a previous project surrounding the Melbourne Cup.
“It is also an exciting move into using new platforms to connect with our audience,” Crocker said.
We can’t wait to get this campaign into market as we know it will make an enormous difference to many who are dealing with the terrible outcomes of a gambling addiction.”
United Yeah co-founder, James Anderson, said the area was an important one to be working in.
“The issues around problem gambling are more relevant today than ever. We’re excited to be working with Liquor & Gaming NSW as they have a real appetite for finding innovative ways to communicate their message,” Anderson said.
Simon Canning
I’m not surprised Ladbrokes is reviewing their account. That pommy guy in their ads was a total pain and a turnoff. I was about to choose a betting agency and chose Sportsbet because of their advertising and because they are an Aussie company with headquarters in Melbourne. I would have thought a foreign company trying to woo Aussie battlers and sports fans would be doing all it could to hide the fact it isn’t Australian rather than advertise the fact every commercial break.
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Sportsbet is 100% owned by Irish betting giant Paddy Power.
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Huh! They concealed that well!
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