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Westpac dumps Saatchi & Saatchi, snuggles up with Colenso

Westpac has gracefully declined to provide Saatchi & Saatchi with its advertising business and in a competitive pitch the account for the creative work has gone to Colenso.

Banking on Colenso

Professor Jim Moser

Jim Moser, chief banana of the Clemenger Group, says the win is very satisfying for the relatively new boss at Colenso, Nick Garrett, who drove the pitch. What a relief too for the Rev. Moser who hired Garrett to replace the dynamic Brent Smart.

Actually, it must be triply gratifying, given that Colenso (a subsidiary of Clems) is a traditional rival of Saatchi and that it has been bankless since Clems lost National Bank to DraftFCB last year.

Nabbing the account means it’s almost a full Westpac deck for Clems: the retail part of Westpac’s business went to another Clemenger subsidiary .99 last year. And Moser hopes to snatch back the direct and digital business very soon from Saatchi’s after its now defunct digi-unit DGS won it from AIM Proximity in 2008.

Nicky Bell, chief executive at Saatchi told NBR the agency is disappointed.

“Since [ECD] Dylan [Harrison] and I arrived in late February we’ve worked very hard on the Westpac account with our team,” Ms Bell said.

“We were privileged to work closely with the senior executive team on a powerful redefinition of Westpac’s vision and purpose.

“That resulted in a creative brief which we and other agencies were invited to respond to. My understanding is that our interpretation was markedly different to the one Westpac went with in the end, but I’m extremely proud of the ideas our team produced.

“Perhaps for all parties, a fresh start is a good thing. We wish the bank all the best.”

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