Endeavour Group, which owns brands including Dan Murphy’s, BWS and a number of venues around the country, has canned its internal creative and production division, B&T can reveal.
Now, Howatson+Company will be handling the production side of Endeavour Group’s creative account. BMF was announced as creative agency of record across all of the Endeavour Group’s brands back in July.
Howatson+Company’s move into this production world is part of its ambition to grow its services beyond purely creative work. Earlier this year, it launched a media buying and planning arm to help service the Honda account.
Jo Rose, Endeavour Group’s outgoing CMO told B&T:
“Over the last few months we have reviewed how we set ourselves up to gain a deeper understanding of our customers’ social needs and behaviours across liquor retail and hospitality to bring an overarching perspective to foster growth across all Endeavour’s brands.
“Following this review, Endeavour Group is pleased to confirm it has entered a new partnership with Plus Also Studios by Howatson+Company. Plus Also Studios is a creative technology company pioneering high quality brand asset creation, endless personalisation and orchestration, all with complete attribution.
“As we transition to this new agency arrangement, we have made the difficult decision to bid farewell to our Creative Studio team. Starting as one designer back in 2015, this team has been an integral in building our own in-house creative capabilities following the demerger from Woolworths.”
B&T understands that a number of the affected Creative Studio staff will move to Howatson+Company in new roles to support the transition.
Thinkerbell had worked on the Dan Murphy’s account but declined an invitation to re-pitch for the work in May. Thinkerbell released its final work for Dan Murphy’s today.
BMF, Thinkerbell and Howatson+Company all declined to comment.
Earlier this week, it was announced that Rose would be departing to spend more time with her family.
