12 January, 1996
Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO has taken less than a month to plug the gap on
its roster left by the loss of the Leeds building society by winning the
Prudential’s pounds 15 million task.
The win is a huge consolation prize for the agency, which lost the
pounds 26 million brief for the merged Leeds and Halifax building
societies to Bates Dorland (Campaign, 15 December 1995).
This week, the Prudential confirmed it was switching to Abbott Mead,
having been initially rebuffed by the agency while the Halifax contest
was taking place.
When the result of the Halifax pitch reached Keith Bedell-Pearce, the
UK’s managing director of the Prudential, who was in Australia, he asked
Mike Tildesley, head of marketing communications, to re-establish
contact.
The switch brings down the curtain on the Prudential’s fling with Mustoe
Merriman Herring Levy, which landed the account in September 1994. Nick
Mustoe, the chief executive of Mustoe Merriman, said the loss of the Pru
had been expected for several months and that no redundancies would be
necessary.
’We’re disappointed the Prudential is going but we understand why, given
the personal relationships with Abbott Mead,’ he said.
The main task for Abbott Mead, which will reveal its first work in the
second quarter of the year, will be to strengthen the Prudential brand
within the crowded financial services sector.
Bedell-Smith is known to have been happy with Mustoe Merriman’s print
work but was concerned that the brand awareness generated by the TV
campaign was not matching investment.
Andrew Robertson, the managing director of Abbott Mead, who renews a
rel-ationship with Bedell-Smith originally forged at WCRS, said the
agency would not switch its Leeds team en masse on to the Prudential
account.
’We will be mixing and matching,’ he said.
Media remains with Pattison Horswell Durden.
