Perth independent agency Rare has won the Australia-wide creative for Cash Converters after a competitive pitch B&T can reveal. The announcement follows on from Dentsu Mitchell being awarded the media for the pawn and loan facilitator in late 2016.

Cash Converters is an Australia-wide business with its headquarters in Perth.

Rare specialise in retail and government clients and currently have a staff of 35.

However, Rare managing director Callum MacKenzie said the fact that the Perth-based company had gone with a Perth independent was pure coincidence.

“I don’t think they were looking for a Perth independent, although I can’t speak for anyone else who submitted [a pitch],” MacKenzie told B&T.

“This is a national business and they made it clear they’re working for growth, of the evolution of their business, and we paid very close attention to where the business sits currently and we heavily considered the rapidly changing and expanding financial services landscape.

“I’d like to think our submission not only responded to the brief but also we were thinking about where the business would be in five years’ time ahead and how we can offer value to the entire business,” he said.

MacKenzie added the agency was already well-staffed to handle the extra workload but suggested a couple more hires may be required.

He added, Rare was given plenty of time to pitch and “that’s something that many clients could learn from. There are too many two or three week turnarounds and that just doesn’t give agencies enough time to truly understand a clients’ business.”

In its 12 year history, he pointed out, Rare had never had to make any staffer redundant. “No mean feat as the Perth market can be very volatile, very up and down,” he said.

MacKenzie agreed there were some (not always positive) perceptions about the Cash Converters brand, but added it also enjoyed incredibly strong awareness and customer loyalty.

“The opportunity for the Cash Converters brand and everyone working on it is immense. The exciting thing for us is there are few brands you can get your hands on in Western Australia that has their scale and scope.

“It’s one of those brands that just has this extreme brand awareness and it’s about leveraging that as they move into the future and they diversify and expand their business.

“A lot of our clients are retail and so taking Cash Converters on is very much part of our DNA; where clients are looking to maximize their space in the marketplace and obviously change and evolve through that,”MacKenzie said.