Pitch Watch: DDB out of Devondale; BUPA names creative and media partnership; Chobani chooses new creative
Mumbrella casts an eye over the major media, creative and public relations pitches at play in market.
In this wrap up: Devondale (shortlist); Bupa (creative and media); Chobani (creative).
DDB splits with Devondale as shortlist emerges
Devondale has confirmed its award-winning relationship with DDB has come to an end, with three agencies believed to be on the shortlist.
TBWA Melbourne and Saatchi & Saatchi Melbourne are believed to have pitched for the business.
The dairy products company announced the review in February, but the pitch was complicated by the master brand not having a marketer in place.
The company confirmed the split with DDB in a statement to Mumbrella but would not be drawn on when a new agency would be named.
We have ceased our relationship with DDB. We’re working through the options and will make an announcement in due course.
DDB was behind a streak of award-winning campaigns for the brand which also led to an increase in revenue which it celebrated in a case study video.
Devondale – Case study from Robbie Brammall on Vimeo.
Devondale is currently running a campaign from 2013 telling the story of the ‘walkers of the grass’, the farmers who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of “pure, delicious milk”.
It’s understood Hardhat is continuing to work on digital projects for the brand.
Devondale parent company Murray Goulburn has also been under fire this year for trying to claw back $200m in milk payments from farmers.
Bupa names new agencies, but backs away from single supplier solution
Australia’s biggest health insurer, Bupa, has completed a long-running review of its creative and media agencies, handing the business to the combined forces of the AJF Partnership and Mindshare.
The announcement is at odds with outgoing CMO John Moore’s intention to hand creative and media to a single supplier.
The move brings to an end Bupa’s relationship with Big Red, which handled health insurance creative, Publicis, which worked on Bupa’s brand campaigns, and media agency OMD.
Moore said he still viewed the new partnership as a “combined” media and creative solution.
“A combined media/creative solution is part of our continued focus on demonstrating Bupa’s position as a broad health and care partner for our customers,” Moore said.
“We’ve shifted the way we communicate Bupa from merely a health insurer to a leader in health and care, to reflect the reality of the services we provide. Our relationship with the AJF Partnership and Mindshare team will continue to build on that approach.”
Moore said the work done with Big Red, Publicis and OMD had set a strong foundation for the future of the business.
He also said that after deciding on a single supplier structure, he was impressed with the way AJF and MindShare worked together.
“You could not tell who was who,” Moore told Mumbrella.
“In fact it was the most integrated offering that we saw through the whole process. I don’t see that we diverted at all from our strategy. Our strategy was that we wanted to have – one good group that we could deal with that would think both where something goes and where it needs to be positioned, as much as how it looks and what the creative strategy is behind it.”
AJF and Mindshare battled it out with Havas and Publicis, who were also on the shortlist.
In a recent interview, Moore told Mumbrella that Bupa was shifting its marketing from products and brand to a needs-based conversation.
Chobani names new Australian creative agency
Yoghurt company Chobani has named Cummins & Partners in Melbourne its new creative agency after a competitive pitch.
The brand, which has attracted global notice for its policies on social responsibility, launched the review earlier in the year.
Chobani general manager, Damian Young, said the company was looking for a different way to present itself to consumers.
“As a brand, we’ve always looked to challenge the conventional ways of doing things, whether that’s the right way to make great-tasting yoghurt or how we approach marketing to what we passionately believe is the best product in the category,” Young said.
Cummins & Partners Melbourne MD, Tom Ward, said Chobani was an exciting brand work with.
“Chobani is one of the world’s most interesting brands, fuelled by an unerring passion for quality and doing the right thing, and with a natural grasp of the modern rules of marketing,” Ward said.
What exactly do DDB Melbourne have left?
Westpac, Telstra, AHM, Devondale all gone.
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