The Independent has dumped its incumbent agency of just six months,
Lowe Howard- Spink, and given the account to Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper.
The decision comes after secret talks which also involved Walsh Trott
Chick Smith.
Lowes’ managing director, Paul Hammersley, intimated that the agency had
been the victim of the Independent’s continued failure to find a sense
of direction.
He commented: ’There is a sense that the Independent is still looking
for the holy grail, and lashing out at an agency is part of that. Their
circulation growth is not on target. It’s not going as well as they
hoped it would and they couldn’t necessarily agree with our way through
that.’
Hammersley said he had been particularly pleased with the ’litany’
cinema campaign released earlier this month, which he believed could
have formed the foundation for a wider campaign.
He added: ’They couldn’t criticise us for the work that we did week in
and week out, producing high-quality tactical work. We did it quickly,
and to budget, so when you get a client talking about chemistry and
relationships, you suspect that there’s something else going on.’
The Independent’s commercial director, Steve Miron, said: ’Lowes has
helped get us off the ground and build the brand again. But if they were
honest with themselves, and we have been with them, we have gone as far
as we can go with Lowes and we need another agency to move us on to the
next stage of the newspaper’s development.’
Euro RSCG’s chief executive, Brett Gosper, said: ’I was surprised that a
recent relationship could break down so quickly. An agency is always
suspicious of that, but we were more confident that we could handle the
business in the long term.’
Referring to the agency’s plans for the newspaper’s future advertising,
Gosper said: ’The advertising should be a sample of the newspaper. We
are trying to convert and recruit new readers.’
