Vodafone pitches creative as Ogilvy bows out
Vodafone has put its creative account out to pitch after two and a half years with Ogilvy.
Ogilvy will not be participating in the pitch, with CEO David Fox saying he was disappointed to hear of the pitch.
“It is a very challenging category. I know our team has worked tirelessly to push the Vodafone brand forward. We will continue to work with Vodafone Australia until such time that a new partner is appointed.”
Vodafone chief marketing officer Kim Clarke said in a statement: “We are pleased with how our brand health is tracking and owe our thanks to Ogilvy for their role in helping us tell our 4G network story and communicating the benefits of data to our customers in a language they understand.
“We’ve seen a real shift in our net promoter score, trust and considerations metrics over the past few years, and there’s no doubt our creative agency’s work has played a role in that.
“We are very much looking forward to speaking with agencies about how we might creatively execute the next phase of our growth in line with our strategic direction. We’ve made some very good ground over the past few years and we want to continue to strengthen our brand consideration in Australia.”
Ogilvy was behind the controversial ‘kidults’ campaign, which was one of the most complained about of 2013, with many people saying it sexualised children. It was also shortlisted in the Film Craft category at the Cannes Lions festival.
It has since worked on the population-coverage campaign.
Population coverage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF0EZ2-8sxo
Kidults:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qMbHe4w2dI
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From mUmBRELLA poster ‘fail’ on Feb 29, 2012, responding to news of Ogilvy’s win on the Voda business. “Start your 2 year clock now Ogilvy.” Nostradamus has a new name.
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” Ogilvy will not be participating in the pitch, with CEO David Fox saying he was disappointed to hear of the pitch.”
Really, are you that surprised?
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If you look at how they treat their customers you can imagine how badly they treat their agency. Imagine if they gave a pitch and nobody came………..
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Smart move Ogilvy. Ten bucks says host won’t want it back either.
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This is what happens when you turn your Back on a major client…they walk for a very good reason.
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A very bad client to work with.
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Telcos are nightmare clients generally. Smart move Ogilvy.
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This account is well known to be right up there with Woolworths as
the most poisonous, soul destroying client to work with in this country.
They don’t get their reputations for nothing…ask anybody who has worked
on it. Ogilvy will be the better for it.
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by my reckoning, the list of Vodafone creative agencies over the past ten years or so is…
JWT
Moon
One Barack St
Clemenger
Host
Ogilvy
at some point, (probably about 4 agencies ago), the client needs to take responsibility for it’s own behaviour and performance, rather than firing it’s agency
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Of course some agencies will line up to pitch this. But not premium, professional and highly capable shops. You’ll get a list of more desperate participants.
Good on Ogilvy for putting some principles ahead of profit. I also see Clems and Patts in Melbourne both recently declined to re-pitch on existing clients… agencies might be standing up for themselves once again?
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There’s only a few clients I’d never want to work with again – Vodafone is one.
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Ha! This is so typical. I bet Ogilvy are counting down the days to which they can farewell one of the most fickle, unappreciative, punishing clients in the market.
To whoever is pitching – do yourselves a favour and DON’T throw your best people at this business, it’s not worth their poor souls.
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