Lloyds TSB is laying plans to pool the media planning and buying
for Cheltenham & Gloucester with that of the main Lloyds TSB business to
create a single media account worth more than pounds 30 million.
While C&G is established as a separate division from its parent company,
Lloyds TSB, the two operations are examining the benefits of a combined
media budget.
C&G uses Zenith Media for its pounds 10 million media planning and
buying business, while Lloyds TSB centralised its media account into CIA
Medianetwork last year.
One source said: ’This plan has been under consideration for some time
and a formal decision is expected at the end of the year, but people
seem to be going hot on the idea.’
However, Chris Steele, the general manager of marketing at C&G, said
there were no immediate plans to centralise media. ’It’s the sort of
thing we’d look at, but there have to be real benefits - not only cost,
but quality ones too,’ he commented.
News of the media rethink came in the same week that Lloyds TSB ended
its six-month search for a creative agency by splitting its pounds 16
million budget between the two finalists, Saatchi & Saatchi and
DMB&B.
Ford Ennals, head of marketing for the newly merged financial group,
confirmed that the TSB incumbent, DMB&B, would continue to handle
product advertising and extend its ’coming together’ campaign into next
year, and the appointment of Saatchis to handle ’specific projects’.
These are thought to include the ’superbranding’ campaign that is
expected next year as the two brands bed in together.
He confirmed that Lowe Howard-Spink, which pulled out of the review in
August, would end its above-the-line relationship with Lloyds from the
end of the year.
