Last year, Ogilvy was awarded the contract for the Auckland Tourism, Transport and Economic Development’s (ATEED’s) Rugby World Cup campaign and positioning the Big Little Super City as the host was a huge, multi-million dollar, multi-headed initiative. But now the dust has settled on that, the organisation is getting back to basics and has appointed Big, Barnes, Catmur & Friends and 4i’s on a roster basis.
The three agencies will work with ATEED on a job by job basis depending on the needs of each project.
Marketing and digital manager Ben Rose says ATEED reviewed its requirements and decided, as a small Council Controlled Organisation, that its marketing needs would be best serviced by a tight roster of specialist creative agencies.
ATEED trialled a number of different agencies on multiple projects, each specialising in different aspects of marketing, before appointing the three agencies (4i’s is currently working on a number of projects for ATEED’s Auckland Convention Bureau; Barnes, Catmur & Friends recently completed the Happy Birthday to Us campaign to encourage Aucklanders to Love Auckland on Anniversary Weekend, and Big recently delivered ATEED’s Pasifika campaign, the Southern Hemisphere’s largest Pacific Island festival).
“These agencies are all outstanding in different ways, and the roster approach enables us to achieve our objective of marketing Auckland’s tourism, events and economic development capabilities in fresh, world class ways. We all have a love for Auckland, and a passion to share in its growth towards the world’s most liveable city, which is why I am excited about these new appointments,” says Rose.
Ogilvy’s executive director Paul Manning said it wasn’t involved in the pitch as ATEED was keen to move to a roster of smaller agencies and Ogilvy “obviously didn’t fit into that category”. He says this doesn’t affect Ogilvy’s relationship with the Auckland Council.
Last year’s campaign (check out some of Ogilvy’s many Rugby World Cup 2011 installations) was a logistical challenge beyond anything he’s ever seen in his career, with the work extending into transport messaging, visitor guides, touchscreen info, branding and signage around the city, and even the creation of a giant fireworks box on Quay Street to promote the Opening Night celebrations (he admits that one might have been a bit too successful).
He says there was a lot of pre-, during- and post-campaign research to see if it was meeting the many different objectives and it “performed really, really well” on all counts.
It is not known when the decision will be made on the winner(s). But, with talk that Auckland’s Hairy A is on the chopping block, coming up with a new logo might be one of their first jobs.
