Myer renews SOM contract, blasts “crazy” pitch rumours
Myer has labelled as “hysterical” a recent report that its creative account was up for pitch and has confirmed to B&T that its contract with incumbent Singleton Ogilvy & Mather has been renewed for another three years.
Myer marketing and creative director, Paul Bonnici, told B&T that a review of its creative business “was never on the cards” and denied speaking to other agencies about potentially pitching for its business.
“When I read a report about it, I just laughed, I thought it was hysterical,” Bonnici told B&T.
“It has never been on the cards at all. The stuff that’s been reported has been absolutely crazy and that [media report about a Myer creative review] was just one of many.
“I’m sure lots of other agencies are disappointed because they wanted to throw their hat in the ring but I’ve had no conversations with any other agency because we’ve always known in our own minds that we wanted to stay with Singleton’s”.
Despite one media report speculating about “one of the biggest and bloodiest pitches in recent history”, Bonnici said Myer’s relationship with SOM was “great” and that “it felt right” to remain with the agency.
The new three-year agreement with SOM has been backdated to August 1, 2006.
SOM’s earlier contract with Myer had expired at the end of July and the plan had been to retain SOM on a month-by-month contract until this week’s three-year renewal.
According to Bonnici, it will be business as usual with SOM with the “Myer is My Store” tagline retained.
However, unlike previous years, he said Myer had formalised a 12-month marketing plan to give its advertising activities more structure.
“We’ve taken a longer-term view where in the past we used to just go season by season but now we know what we want to do and what needs to be done over the next 12 months, so there will be changes in that there will be a more structured approach to our marketing,” Bonnici said.
“But ‘Myer is My Store’ is strong and we’ll keep that and we’ve also just launched the Department of Fashion and Jennifer Hawkins will remain onboard with Myer, so it’s all good.”
Myer’s media contract with Universal McCann expires January 31, 2007 and a review is currently underway with the incumbent expected to repitch for the $57m media business.
