Tui has ended its creative partnership with Saatchi & Saatchi, appointing Colenso BBDO to take charge of a new creative project.
This move sees Tui join a host of other DB-owned brands, including Old Mout Cider, Rekorderlig and DB Export, in the Colenso portfolio.
“I can confirm that Colenso will be working on a new project for the Tui brand, however Saatchi & Saatchi is still an incumbent agency for DB Breweries and we will still be working with them moving forward,” says DB senior comms adviser Simon Smith.
“Tui will not be going through a pitch process. Tui work will move to a project by project basis. The latest Tui project will be managed by Colenso. In the future any of our incumbent agencies, including Saatchi, could be asked to work on a Tui projects. This is the new model we are adopting for the brand moving forward.”
Smith here refers to the fact that Saatchi & Saatchi will continue working with Heineken, which owns DB.
“Saatchi are currently working on a large campaign for Heineken, and we will share more details about this campaign in the coming weeks.”
Smith also says that Saatchi will continue the it has commenced refreshing the packaging of the Tui brand.
This news comes at a tough time for Saatchi, which saw its Toyota Hilux ad pulled from air in December following backlash on social media.
The loss Tui, which has been a decent spender, also comes off the back of Saatchi’s loss of the Spark creative account last year, and this will place further strain on the agency.
StopPress contacted Saatchi & Saatchi for comment on potential job losses, but we are yet to receive a response in this regard.
Over the last few years, Saatchi & Saatchi has launched several well-awarded campaigns for the beer brand, including ‘Beer plumber’ and ‘Tui Catch a million’.
Further back, Saatchi was also behind the series of ads featuring a group of gorgeous women working in the Tui Brewery.
Saatchi also added to the ‘Yeah, Right’ tradition with series of billboards, some of which provoked some controversy.*
Saatchi also helped Tui celebrate its 125th anniversary in 2014.
*Correction: This story incorrectly stated that Saatchi & Saatchi developed the ‘Yeah, Right’ slogan. It was in fact developed by Mojo in the mid 90s, thereafter continued by Y&R and later by M&C Saatchi.
