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Ikon retains $60m Commbank media account

CBAIkon has retained the $60m plus media account for the Commonwealth Bank, Mumbrella can reveal.

The agency fought off a field of contenders in the multi-stage pitch which originally included ZenithOptimedia, Carat and even the bank’s creative agency M&C Saatchi before being reduced to a shortlist of incumbent Ikon against OMD and a Mediabrands offering.

“We are thrilled to continue the partnership,” Pat Crowley, account lead on the Commbank account told Mumbrella. “It reinforces that a local agency can deliver for a big iconic brand.”

In the wake of the deal, Ikon denied industry rumours that in order to retain the account they were moving the media buying element of the account to one of their sister WPP agencies, within the GroupM family.

“Certainly not”, said Crowley. “Dynamic trading is a big part of what we give the bank and that is certainly not something we’re doing.

“Everything will be done out of Ikon and we will be using the broader STW Group for diversified services.”

The move is a major win for the incumbent agency Ikon from whom Commbank is a foundation client.

In statement Vittoria Shortt, chief marketing officer, Commonwealth Bank said:

“The Australian media marketplace is in tremendous shape given the calibre of agency responses we saw throughout the process.

“In a rapidly evolving media environment, it is critical for us to work with the best in the market to reach our customers; and the pitch process reaffirmed that Ikon is the agency to do this for us.

“They proved their ability to develop world-class, bespoke solutions for our business challenges.

“We are excited to continue to build on the foundations we’ve created during our 15 year partnership and look forward to taking the relationship to the next level.”

Key to Ikon retaining the business has been the rehiring of Crowley, who led the CommBank account for Ikon for more than five years and returned from Match Media to led the pitch for the agency. 

The agency review was carried out over ten weeks and applied to various businesses across the CommBank Group.

According to Nielsen, the Commonwealth Bank has a media spend in the year to June 2014 of $44.1m, well down on the previous year where it spent $59.2m as the bank pushed hard with its Can campaign.

Nic Christensen 

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