Colonial First State has handed its creative and media duties to Akcelo and Speed.
Akcelo has become the creative AOR, while Speed is charged with the media.
The pair of indies follow Howatson+Company, which previously had held the full-service account.
B&T understands that Howatson+Company parted ways with CFS last year and declined to take part in the pitch. B&T also understands that CFS paused most of its marketing activity through 2025.
Howatson+Company picked up the creative and media work for CFS in 2024, winning the creative from It’s Friday and the media from Speed.
Together, Speed and It’s Friday helped CFS launch its first through-the-line campaign since 2017 in 2022. The ‘unleash your second half’ campaign was designed to break the perception that only a select few people can access the best investment managers.
There has been a great deal of change at CFS over the past few years. In 2021, Commonwealth Bank, which had owned the business outright, sold a 55 per cent stake in the fund to US-based private equity firm KKR.
Months after that deal was done, Speed took over from EssenceMediacom as its media AOR.
Now, it seems another change in ownership could be on the cards. According to reports in the AFR, CFS’ owners CBA and KKR started looking for buyers late last year.
At the beginning of this year it was also revealed that the super fund had received offers for the business and as a result it entered into a period of due diligence. Again, according to reports in the AFR, offers have been received for CFS — the AFR speculated that CBA and KKR were looking for offers in the region of $5 billion.
CFS and all the agencies involved with the account from 2021 to now declined to comment when reached by B&T.
