THE advertising and media industries are set to feel the effects of the trouble Ansett Airlines finds itself in this week, with the news that Ansett has been placed in the hands of an administrator and has suspended all flights.
The Ansett adminstrator was quoted in Sydney media this week as saying that financially, the airline’s “cupboard was bare”.
George Patterson Bates Melbourne and Zenith Media have many staff that could be affected by the loss of the multi-million dollar advertising account, and there are questions about whether the companies are creditors for the creative and media spend for this year’s “Absolutely Ansett” campaign.
Meanwhile, Pol Publishing is in discussions with Air New Zealand this week after recently renewing its custom publishing contract for the Ansett magazines Panorama, Vive, Travelling Life and Pocket Concierge.
Pol managing director Lesley Wild said the Ansett contract was lucrative and very successful, and advertising revenue was up, and the Ansett news was very disappointing.
She said the company still published other custom contracts, including Panorama for Air New Zealand.
Earlier this week, the Advertising Federation of Australia launched a stinging attack over the handling of the Ansett/Air NZ account review, claiming agencies have poured millions of dollars into a pitch that was shaky from the start.
AFA executive director Lesley Brydon said the current airline drama served as a warning to agencies to seek up-front compensation before devoting time and resources and investing heavily in such large-scale pitches.
She said it was irresponsible of the airline, one of the country’s biggest advertisers, to put its business up for pitch when there were alarm bells ringing over its financial situation.
“Here we have agencies that have gone full hog and invested everything in the pitch, only to find there is no business at the end,” Brydon said. “It’s the worst thing that can happen—agencies wasting precious resources when their margins are already very fragile.”
Clemenger BBDO managing director Jim Moser said the ad industry as a whole had injected millions of dollars into pitching for the airline business.
“It was one of the biggest pitches in Australian history with an enormous number of agencies involved,” he said. “When you think of the time and effort involved (on the part of pitching agencies), it’s just extraordinary.”
Moser said its client Air NZ had “cancelled some activity”, but it was largely business as usual.
All Ansett advertising was suspended earlier this month.
The suspended pitch has left DDB and George Patterson Bates up in the air and out of pocket (both agencies made it to the final stages of the Ansett/Air New Zealand pitch).
Meanwhile, it also emerged this week that Jetset and Traveland—part of the Air New Zealand Ansett Group—have pulled the plug on their account review, despite a handful of Melbourne agencies gearing up to pitch for the business.
Mojo Melbourne (which currently holds the Jetset account) and Clemenger Harvie Edge were among the agencies believed to be vying for the business.
