End of year new business activity: a dead cat has bounced
Peter McDonald
Opportunities for agencies to win new business have improved in the final quarter of 2011, after a ‘scary’ third quarter when the value of creative and media account moves hit a three-year low.
The value of the new business market in Sydney and Melbourne fell by a fifth between March to September.
But since then, creative account moves such as Tourism Victoria, Simplot, Westfield, CPA and Tatts Group, and media moves such as Domino’s, Westpac, Woolworths, Pfizer and Universal Pictures have seen the market rebound from $658.4m to $721.8m in November, according to The Agency Register.
Source: The Agency Register
“It was looking very sad until September. But it seems that a dead cat can bounce,” said Peter McDonald, MD of The Agency Register.
“It’s unusual to see so much activity, and such big reviews, in the final months of the year. And there’s a lot in the pipeline. Next year will see around $400m of business move in creative reviews alone,” he said.
Woolworths, Optus, CommBank, Qantas, Office Works and Big W are the key creative accounts now in play, with a lot at stake for Australia’s major agencies.
M&C Saatchi, one of the biggest players, is defending its Woolworths and Optus accounts. It missed out on the shortlist for Qantas, but is in the running for CommBank.
The CommBank pitch sees incumbent American agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners go up against M&C Saatchi and DDB, which shared the account of CommBank rival ANZ for a long period until losing it to Whybins in March.
Another big agency Ogilvy, which let go three creatives including creative director Andrew Ostrom last week, also missed out on the Qantas short list, which sees Droga5, Leo Burnett and Publicis Mojo in contention.
Ideaworks is facing a review of Big W.
In media, all eyes are on Qantas and ANZ. OMD, Zenith Optimedia and MediaCom are in the running for the airline, while PHD takes on the might of Mitchells for the $60m ANZ account.
Overall, the new business market in Australia’s two biggest advertising hubs has lost 14% of its value this year compared to 2010, dropping to below $750m.
But there has been an increase in the number of individual projects awarded in 2011, giving agencies more opportunities to get their feet in the door on a client’s business.
Source: The Agency Register
McDonald said that he expected more opportunities to crop up in 2012, particularly from the government sector as the run-up to elections draws nearer.
