The Sky account remains with DDB after the client met with other agency’s that StopPress believes to be True and TBWA.
Retaining the account continues what has now been a 25-year-long partnership between DDB and Sky. The pair began working together when Sky had 20,000 subscribers.
As of March, Sky was serving more than 750,000 New Zealand homes.
In 2014 DDB and Sky celebrated 20 years together and at the time, Sky’s former director of marketing Mike Watson said in the early days, Sky considered DDB an extension of its marketing department.
“We were really, really tight, and they’re our one-stop shop, so we developed a really close relationship because we had to. There’s also no bullshit. We tell it like it is. There’s surprisingly little ego. It has been helpful that there’s very few layers in New Zealand marketing, and in Sky in particular, so we can kill bad ideas quickly. I think we do make a lot of quick calls on gut feel and we’re prepared to take risks. There’s a few clichés in there, but they’re true.”
Watson left the company in November last year after nearly 19 years with the company. In August of last year, Rawinia Newton stepped up to director of sales and marketing.
During their time working together, DDB and Sky TV have delivered a number of memorable ads including ‘Poisoned Chalice’, and ‘Mark and Marty’ and ’60 things in 60 seconds’.
While the company has decided not to change its agency, internally its board and senior management team has seen changes this year.
Last month saw John Fellet, former chief executive, step-down from the board while former chief financial officer Jason Hollingworth also left. Their departures followed former director of sport Richard Last leaving the company.
Meanwhile, the new chief executive Martin Stewart, has been publicly criticising the company’s performance.
“Sky should be a loved brand…,” he told Newsroom. “It’s brought high levels of production and service to the screen but somewhere along the way the relationship (with customers) started to get broken or damaged. We stopped listening or even when we did listen, we didn’t take action.”
He added he would be changing the brand’s name, the price, what’s in it and what customers can do with it.
Earlier this year, Sky reported its first-half net profit dropped 20 percent on last year.
