Ikon loses $8m SPC Ardmona media account to Slingshot
Slingshot has won the account for food brands company SPC Ardmona and is set to launch a Melbourne office to service the account, Mumbrella can reveal.
The appointment sees another account move away from Ikon Communications, which lost Coca-Cola two weeks ago and Vodafone to Bohemia in December last year.
In February, SPC Ardmona began a review of its media agency with independents Slingshot, Match, Cummins&Partners and network agencies UM, Mitchell & Partners and incumbent Ikon all believed to have shown interest in the account.
This was then brought down to a shortlist of three involving Cummins&Partners, Mitchells and Slingshot for the account, which according to Nielsen data spends just under $8m a year.
Slingshot CEO Simon Rutherford said he was excited about the win and confirmed the agency would be setting up a Melbourne office with SPC Ardmona to be that office’s foundation account.
He told Mumbrella this morning: “I think it will be very full on but I think there is a good opportunity in Melbourne. When you think about independent media agencies there are not many down there. Initially SPC will be the foundation client and we are interviewing for a general manager role and a small team that will grow quite quickly.
“Our aim will be to drive growth in that market. ”
Bronwyn Powell, marketing and innovation director at SPC Ardmona said Slingshot was the right strategic partner for the food brands company, which has been in the news of late after the federal government declined to give them a financial bailout.
“Our business is undergoing major transformation, we have a small lean marketing team and through the pitch process Slingshot proved that they would be the ideal strategic partner to guide us and help us innovate in what is becoming a very complex media landscape,” said Powell.
“We get access to their senior team of talented people and SPC are very excited about working with them”.
Nic Christensen
Good work Ruthers!
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SPC spends $8mil a year. They just got a cash injection of just $70mil recently by woolworths. Can’t see them spending $8mil on media – especially with CC amatil recent downgrade in profit…
Congrats on the win I hope it works for everyone in the long run!
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is slingshot an accredited independent now?
i was of the understanding slingshot billed through Carat/Mitchells/Aegis/Denstu?
congrats ruthers and crew
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I thought SPC were on the verge of shutting down?
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Congratulations to everyone at Slingshot. 🙂
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Might want to check that spend, reported elsewhere at $2.4m. Vastly different numbers. A challenging foundation client, either way.
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Nice one Ruthers!!!
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Well done! Slingers are winners!
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ouch to ikon.
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