THE Australian Labor Party has split with its agency of six years Saatchi & Saatchi, indicating a new strategy for next year's Federal election.
ALP national secretary Tim Gartrell said the split was amicable. Gartrell voiced the ALP’s appreciation of Saatchi & Saatchi’s professionalism and commitment. However he said the ‘virtual strategy’ approach was more suited to its needs and that Saatchi & Saatchi had agreed to facilitate the transition.
“Saatchi & Saatchi has provided the ALP with the highest standards of creative input and strategic insight in a very difficult campaign environment,” Gartrell said.
Saatchi & Saatchi won the $10m account in 1998 after a fierce battle with incumbent John Singleton Advertising. JSA had held the account for four election campaigns. However the national arm is now following in the footsteps of both the federal Liberal Party and the state Labor parties in New South Wales and Queensland, all of which have used the consultancy model with some success.
At the last election, the Liberal Party used what it dubbed “The Team”—a collection of industry specialists brought together to support
Howard in 1996. They included Ted Horton, Mark Pearson, Toby Ralph and John King. This collection of industry consultants, creatives and media specialists often worked out of the Party’s campaign headquarters.
Saatchi & Saatchi chairman Sandra Yates was in overall charge of the account and she was often labelled as a key Labor strategist.
Yates was apparently responsible for wooing the party to the agency as she was a former business partner of journalist and author Anne Summers, who advised former PMs Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. “It was a privilege to work with the ALP on the 1998 and 2001 elections,”
Yates said of the split,“We part on good terms and we wish them well in the next Federal election.”
At the time of Saatchi’s appointment, the decision was criticised by some in the industry as being an error as JSA had successfully steered the ALP through three elections.
In the last election, Labor also enlisted the help of Melbourne agency Shannon’s Way.
In conjunction with Saatchi & Saatchi, it introduced Labor’s campaign slogan “What I stand for”, and focused almost solely on ALP leader Kim Beazley.
For the same election, Labor also launched controversial ads aimed at scaring voters away from John Howard and the Liberal Party, while the Coalition used simple tactics which questioned Labor’s leadership skills.
The ALP’s move is the advertising harbinger of the next Federal election, expected to be called mid-2004.
The Federal Government is also expected to conduct a spending spree advertising its services in the lead-up to the next election.
