Saatchi & Saatchi and Host dropped from Lion Nathan roster
Saatchi & Saatchi has today suffered another big blow, losing its place on the Lion Nathan roster to BMF and Publicis Mojo. Host was also removed from the roster as the brewer moved from four rostered agencies to two.
The loss is the third major blow to the troubled Saatchi & Saatchi in three months.
In July, Saatchi & Saatchi lost retailer David Jones to M&C Saatchi, while last week it emerged that Toyota had shifted some of its work including Yaris from Saatchi & Saatchi to Droga 5.
Saatchi & Saatchi had been responsible for Tooheys New and the Hahn brands.
The most recent Tooheys New work by Saatchis was the “Beer economy” campaign.
Saatchis was also behind the “Stay Premium, Gentlemen” campaign for Hahn Super Dry.
Tooheys New will now move to BMF, which already looks after Tooheys Extra Dry.
Publicis Mojo will take on both Hahn and James Squire, which was previously looked after by Host.
In its announcement, Lion Nathan said: “Under the guidance of Host, James Squire has continued to go from strength to strength and currently leads the Australian craft market.”
Lion Nathan Marketing Director Matt Tapper said:
“It has been a very tough decision to make. We value very strategic and integrated relationships with our agencies and having reviewed our roster we feel we can achieve more effective and sustainable partnerships with two lead creative agencies rather than four.”
He added: “Making these changes at any time is difficult, but we have taken the opportunity to do this now at the commencement of our new financial year to deliver a more consistent scope of work for our lead agencies. We have great respect for the time we have shared with Saatchi & Saatchi and Host and the contribution they have made in building our brands. We thank them and wish them every success in the future.”
Saatchi & Saatchi CEO John Foley issued a statement saying: “While we respect Lion Nathan’s consolidation decision, we naturally would have preferred to be on the right side of the decision. But that’s business – we’ll take it on the chin and move on. We are incredibly proud of the work we have produced for Lion Nathan – particularly in recent times. We have worked with some great people over the years at Lion Nathan and we wish them all the best.”
“So moving forward, as one of the best beer advertising agencies in Australia, we very much look forward to catching up for a beer or two with a brand that wants to share in our experience, passion & category expertise.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Sorry, this comment doesn’t have anything to do with the article above. Tim, can you please do something about that shocker of a Fairfax ad? The expanding leaderboard is really starting to piss me off. Thanks
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I feel your pain. We lost Lucky Strike.
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Hi Mike,
I appreciate the feedback.
Like all ad-funded sites, we try to strike a balance between giving our advertisers a level of cut through they feel makes their investment worthwhile, and a user experience that doesn’t piss our regular readers off.
A couple of times we’ve experimented with formats then dropped them when they’ve annoyed people. I think this is the first time we’ve accepted an expandable ad. I do, I must admit, feel duty bound having accepted it, to allow it to run for the remainder of its campaign.
But based on the feedback we’ve had thus far, including yours, we’re likely to make it a requirement for future creative that expandable ads close automatically when the mouse moves away.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Enjoy that hospital pass Mojo!
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Yeah that fairfax ad makes me wanna hurt myself!
Also congrats mojo/bmf, comiserations saatchis/host
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Thanks Tim
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sorry to hijack the post comments but I just can’t resist.
I like how “cut through” is a euphemism for disrespecting and annoying the shit out of people.
How about Mumbrella adds a series of buttons under the ads which allow readers to give feedback which you then pass back to advertisers? You could even charge more for the ads that annoy people. Similar to what facebook does but with the feedback to advertisers part.
There’s a very real cost to Mumbrella and the brands who embark on this tactic – unfortunately it’s hidden.
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Stop whingeing.
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Ian,
I disagree that we are disrespecting our readers. If there’s a consensus objection from our readers to a format, we drop it. We’ve done that a couple of times before and I’m sure we’ll do it again.
As I’ve mentioned above, although we’ll honour the booking that this advertiser has made, it is likely that future campaigns from any advertiser would require an automatic closure of the expandable banner when the mouse is moved away. That’s as a direct result of readers’ feedback.
It’s always a balancing act – the reason we’re able to offer Mumbrella as a free service is because of advertising support, but I realise that without our audience we dont have anything to offer to advertisers in the first place.
Even if we don’t always get it right, hopefully we generally find a balance that suits both sides of the equation, and learn from it when we don’t.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Tim, don’t sweat it. We’d rather you took a few ads than charged us for reading Mumbrella – now I’m contradicting myself on the anti-siphoning post I just made. ;o)
Next time, just make sure the expandos are roll on roll off and you’ll be fine.
Now delete this thread and let people get on with reading about Saatchi & Saatchi.
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WOW Mods way to let someone HIJACK.
Mumbrella maybe do a story on how no review happened (edited by Mumbrella for legal reasons). All this after the best quarter Tooheys New had ever had thanks to the Beer Economy campaign.
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Surprising considering I think the latest campaigns by Saatchis for Hahn Super Dry and Tooheys New were the strongest for either brand in a while..
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You think clients shift agencies because of the work?
Sure, that’s sometimes the case. But more often than not, it’s either about money or petty political games.
Wouldn’t have a clue in this instance. But if I had a buck for every time a client ditched an agency on the back of decent work, I’d have… well, maybe 80 bucks?
Ok, that’s not a lot of money. Would buy a pretty good Thai meal for two though.
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Where is this annoying ad everyone is talking about?
I genuinely can’t see any ads except for the annual Amia awards banner. Which is tiny!
Regardless, I thought most people who follow the site are all here because we are interested in media and advertising? Thus understand most media sources dependend on funding through advertisements? 50% of Cleo, Madison, Cosmo.. list goes on, are purely advertisements! But I still pay $9 for them!
Point is, I don’t think we should complain too much. That’s all. Although, my view may be slightly biased. lol
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***depend
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Wake up people, the beer economy was plagiarism. It was done in NZ and in the US.
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Its been years since there’s been any interesting work on Tooheys New.
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