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VMLY&R wins Defence Force creative account

The Department of Defence has appointed the recently merged VMLY&R to handle its creative and digital account.

The eight agencies who made the shortlist, and were paid a pitch fee of $13,000, were Host/Havas, VMLY&R, TBWA Melbourne, M&C Saatchi, BWM Dentsu, JWT, Clemenger BBDO and BMF.

VMLY&R have won the creative account for DFR

Australian Defence Force recruiting prepared to tender its creative and digital account in October 2017.

Six months after it put its proposed tender out to market, Host/Havas held onto the account for another year as the Department of Defence rolled over its current contract with the agency.

Last week Host/Havas made a series of redundancies following the loss of its biggest account, Australian Defence Force Recruiting.

Mumbrella understands Host/Havas and VMLY&R were the final two agencies left in the pitch process.

This is the first major win for VMLY&R since communications holding company WPP consolidated creative agency Y&R and digital agency VML to create one agency in September last year.

Sue McGready, director of general defence force recruiting, said in a statement: “VMLY&R bring experience and expertise that will enable DFR to recruit Australian Defence Force members into the
future. We look forward to developing a strong partnership with the team at VMLY&R over the coming months to set us up for the years to come.”

“I would also like to thank Host/Havas for their achievements with DFR over the past four and a half years in an industry that has seen rapid expansion and change.”

VMLY&R’s leadership team, which includes Paul Nagy, Aden Hepburn and Peter Bosilkovski, said: “We’re honoured and delighted to be partnering with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) – a modern, innovative, people-focused organisation and one of Australia’s largest employers. This is both a new business win and a homecoming for our agency group, with Y&R previously having held the account for more than a decade.

“We’re thrilled to be once again partnering with the ADF and of course, very proud to be entrusted to provide our services to support the recruitment of members for all three Services of the ADF.”

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