Saatchi & Saatchi and DDB fight for Tourism Australia Tim Addington
Saatchi & Saatchi and DDB will fight it out for the prestigious $180m Tourism Australia advertising account, after incumbent M&C Saatchi failed to make the final round cut.
The decision to shortlist Saatchi & Saatchi and DDB will see Saatchi’s executive creative director Steve Back pitted against his former agency DDB and its national creative director Matt Eastwood. Back left DDB at the end of last year.
Marty O’Halloran, chairman and CEO at DDB refused to comment, other than saying: “We are delighted to be on the shortlist.”
Saatchi & Saatchi Australia CEO Simone Bartley said: “We are thrilled to be on the list. It is an incredibly exciting time to be in Australia with everything that is going on let alone having the opportunity to work on this piece of business.”
M&C were heavily criticised for its ‘So where the bloody hell are you’ campaign featuring model Lara Bingle.
Praising M&C’s work, Buckley said: “We thank in particular M&C Saatchi, Tourism Australia’s current creative agency, which has provided three years of excellent service to us. We recognise their contribution, both creatively and as strategic partners, in taking the international marketing of Australia into a new and exciting era.”
But Tom Dery, executive chairman at M&C Saatchi claimed the agency had already factored in that it would not hold the account.
“We were pretty realistic about our chances. We join a long line of incumbents that haven’t been reappointed on this account.
“We have been prepared for it. When we did our budgeting last year we did not write Tourism Australia in the figures. Accordingly we were very judicious about people hirings which means there is almost no impact on us now.”
On the subject of redundancies at the agency Dery added: “There maybe some, but not many, if at all.”
In a sideswipe at Tourism Australia, Dery said the account needed more long term consistency rather than switching agencies every three years.
“For national tourist organisations you need a lot of things to come together before the advertising can really have an impact. I think there has been a lot of changes in Tourism Australia since we have been working with them. There has been a change in minister, a change in chief executive, a change in marketing director and a change in regional operators in the US, Asia and the UK. I think it was reasonable to predictable that the new team would want their own team on board and we understand and respect that.
“One of the things it (Tourism Australia’s advertising) is crying out for is the need for consistency and I think that is one of the reasons they haven’t got it. Hopefully this crowd will be different and settle down and be able to move forward.”
“Our strategy of delivering an authentic invitation to our target audience to visit the country is powerful and effective and it will continue to under-pin creative executions into the future.”
The decision to narrow the field from six agencies to the final shortlist of Saatchi & Saatchi and DDB was made unanimously by a sub-committee of the Tourism Australia board, with Buckley claiming it had picked the “best agencies in the country” for the job.
Clemenger BBDO pulled out of the race last week leaving the incumbents M&C, Whybin\TBWA, Publicis Mojo, Singleton Ogilvy & Mather and the two finalist on the extended shortlist.
Buckley added: “We are looking for an agency partner that not only provides the requisite international network and infrastructure credentials, but also is, most importantly, at the top of its creative game.”
The final round of assessment will include presentations from the two agencies in Australia and meetings in Tourism Australia’s key regional offices in London, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and China. The board of Tourism Australia will then make a recommendation to Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson.
The media portion of TA’s business is being contested by Carat and MPG. The pitch is being managed by The Agency Register.
