Initiative Australia has retained Pernod Ricard’s media account following a competitive review.
The retention comes as Pernod Ricard Indian Limited tapped Initiative to be its media agency partner across nine key markets in the India and Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. Initiative takes over from Wavemaker who has been with Pernod Ricard for over two decades in India and Singapore.
Here in Australia, Initiative has had the alcohol business for seven years. The reappointment marks the next chapter of a long-standing client relationship.
The renewed remit will build on the trust, knowledge and ways of working developed between the two businesses, with a continued focus on creating greater impact across media, data, technology and culture.
Kristy Rutherford, marketing director of Pernod Ricard said the media environment had fundamentally changed since Initiative was first appointed seven years ago.
“The world is fundamentally a different place than what it was seven years ago, when we first appointed Initiative. Consumers’ attention is drastically more fragmented and the need to stand out from the pack is at an all-time high. And it will only get more challenging. The process gave us an opportunity to step back and consider what we need from our media partnership, to have maximum impact and drive growth for our portfolio in the future,” she said.
“We want to show up in bigger, culturally-led and impactful ways for our brands. We want to create more value from our sporting, entertainment and creator partnerships, to fundamentally make our marketing more effective and drive long term brand equity.
“Initiative demonstrated a strong understanding of that ambition and, after seven years together, the combination of existing trust, strong relationships and the ability to have truly candid, pragmatic conversations about where the partnership can go next made them the right partner for our next chapter.”
Andrew Cambridge, CEO of Initiative said the reappointment reflects both the strength of the relationship built over seven years and a shared ambition for what comes next.
“Retention to me isn’t about defending what you’ve done before. I think it’s about demonstrating that you’re still the right partner for what comes next. Seven years together means we know the Pernod Ricard portfolio incredibly well, but more importantly, we’ve built real trust between our teams,” he said.
“That creates the honest, open conversations that lead to better thinking and better work. We know what works, what doesn’t and where we can push further, so we can get straight to making work that has an impact.”
