Peer-to-peer lending site Harmoney has appointed Contagion to its advertising account after a pitch understood to have also involved Goodfolk and Problem Child.
This news comes at a good time for Contagion, which recently also won a decent chunk of the Southern Cross Health Society account, and the agency’s managing partner Dean Taylor says his team “jumped at the opportunity” to pitch for the account of the 18-month-old business.
Harmoney data from last week showed that the company has surpassed the milestone of $200 million borrowed and lent since the company first launched.
Harmoney general manager of sales and marketing for Australasia Monica Mathis says this rapid growth led to the decision to appoint an agency.
“We needed an agency that could assist us take our brand to the next level,” she says.
“Contagion’s collaborative approach, their understanding of digital disruption to the finance industry, and a great combination of storytelling and media integration was just what we were looking for.”
Mathis described the pitch process as “quick and dirty”, giving the trio of agencies involved (she would not comment on which were involved) a tight turnaround of only 10 days to come up with a strategic plan that covered all aspects of the business.
“We wanted to see if the agencies got us,” says Mathis. “And Contagion really did its homework.”
The appointment of Contagion follows on from a period of relative polygamy for Harmoney, with the company taking its marketing business in-house last year and handing out project work to a range of agencies, including True, Goodfolk, JustOne and Latch Digital.
Before that, Harmoney worked with Barnes, Catmur and Friends on its launch campaign.
So having tried out both polygamy and monogamy when it comes to its creative partnerships, which approach will Harmoney be taking in the future?
“We’re currently in discussions with Contagion about what they’ll be able to cover [in terms of advertising and comms], and we’re definitely leaning more toward monogamy at the moment,” says Mathis.
