.99 hasn’t had a particularly good run of it recently, after handing the keys to both Air New Zealand and Vodafone over to DraftFCB. But we thought we spied a glimmer of light when we saw this leap year-related billboard for BP. Ogilvy is BP’s above the line agency and .99 does some of its below-the-line work, so it was unusual to see a billboard created by the Clemenger-owned agency. But, according to executive director Paul Manning, there’s no great powershift to report.
“The ‘366 Days’ billboard execution was a small, one-off, tactical initiative. It’s linked to the point of sale work that .99 do for BP and not part of our strategic agenda. There’s absolutely no change to Ogilvy’s position as BP’s ATL agency partner.”
So it’s just .99, like every other agency in the world, trying to take a mile when given an inch and selling one of its promotional ideas as an above-the-line piece of work. Still, if the gradual transition of Air New Zealand from Colenso to .99 is any guide, Ogilvy might want to watch its back.
