Zenith Media has managed to land Rover’s media planning brief,
despite still not having signed a planning chief to replace Rosemary
Gorman, who was lured away by The Mail on Sunday more than a month
ago.
But Zenith has imported some planning expertise from Ammirati Puris
Lintas, which has now lost the planning brief. Mark Howley, strategic
planning director at APL, who has been dedicated to Rover for the past
two years, is joining Zenith as planning director on the account.
He will report to whoever takes over from Gorman - now head of client
sales at The Mail on Sunday - and will work closely with Tom George,
Rover’s account director at Zenith. Howley will come on board in
mid-December when he returns from his honeymoon.
The rest of Rover’s planning team is still being decided. Its TV buying
is handled by broadcast director Toby Heiser and manager Jason Carter,
press is through managing partner and head of press Caroline Simpson and
associate press director Stuart Mays. Radio is handled by radio director
Jim Freeman and outdoor by account director Tim Sapsford.
Zenith has been buying Rover’s pounds 40 million media since the agency
first launched. Rover moved its creative account out of APL into M&C
Saatchi in the summer. The car company has historically kept its buying
in one place and its media planning and creative in another, so
observers expressed surprise that the planning has gone to Zenith and
not M&C Saatchi’s media partner, Walker Media.
In 1994, following BMW’s acquisition of Rover, Zenith added BMW’s media
planning and buying - previously with Initiative Media - to its client
list.
