EssenceMediacom’s new era ‘starts right here’, retaining $20m Nib account
GroupM’s EssenceMediacom has retained the $20 million media account for health insurer, Nib, Mumbrella can reveal.
The win for GroupM’s newest agency comes following the account being put out to pitch in late-2022, with the incumbent, then-Essence, looking to hold on to it.
Nib sticks with EssenceMediacom
This is the first major pitch win for the combined agency, after a number of accounts left EssenceMediacom’s ranks in the lead up to the merger, including Entain Group and Tourism and Events Queensland.
It also comes a year after the insurer first shook up its agency roster, replacing Saatchi & Saatchi with BWM Isobar, now known as Dentsu Creative, while also adding Slik as its creative production agency.
Alongside appointing Dentsu, Nib also refreshed its brand at the beginning of 2022 via WPP’s Landor & Fitch.
EssenceMedicom CEO, Pat Crowley, who is soon to be replaced by Pippa Berlocher, told Mumbrella: “Nib is committed to better health and wellbeing for all Australians and it’s a great honour to continue working closely with them to achieve their goals and help its members access the health information and services they need.
“This is the first major pitch where we truly explored our new approach to breakthrough thinking for brands and the new products and planning system that underpin it. All agencies know that it can be challenging to pitch as an incumbent, but this really proves the strength of our relationship and our promise to deliver breakthrough thinking that will drive brands forwards.”
Head of marketing at Nib Group, Chris Donald also told Mumbrella: “EssenceMediacom really impressed us with their strategic thinking, media execution as well as their detailed data and tech capability. They brought the smarts we were looking for and cultural values that align with ours. We’re excited to extend our relationship with the talented and passionate team at the newly merged agency and bring their breakthough thinking to our brand.”
On the Mumbrellacast last week, EssenceMediacom’s APAC CEO, Rupert McPetrie and chief strategy officer, Sophie Price outlined how the agency is planning to “fight back” with its new positioning, as well as touting why it’s the only one-stop-shop in market, at scale.
“We’re a business that is obsessed with clients, so we feel every loss keenly. But I think we’ve managed it relatively well overall,” said McPetrie.
“Every client is different. Every client has their own specific needs, requirements, and challenges that we’re working to help on. And so rather than this being a one size fits all application of all the product capability and talent that comes with EssenceMediacom, we’re looking at it in a very intentional, structured way, as you’d expect.”
You can listen to the interview below.
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Calum Jaspan was news editor at Mumbrella, based in Melbourne. He was also the producer and host of the Mumbrellacast. He left Mumbrella in May 2023.
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