HBF BOMBSHELL: ACCOUNT TO MOVE TO MEERKATS FROM 2009
After an extensive review, WA’s leading health insurer, HBF, has appointed Meerkats as its new lead advertising agency.
The appointment will be effective from the start of 2009. 303 will continue to service the account until this time when the transition will occur.
HBF General Manager Communications, John Le Cras, said HBF believed it was appropriate to consider anew the organisation’s brand and communications strategy.
“Ultimately this decision will be judged by the outcomes of the work produced. However, I believe this arrangement is right for HBF at this point in time.”
While the appointment has come as a shock, there has been a fair amount of speculation within the comments section of campaignbrief.com/wa over the past 6 months which suggested that HBF were unhappy at 303 and were contemplating a review.
After holding the account for all of the 90s, 303 lost the business in 2001 when Gatecrasher were appointed. 303 gradually clawed their way back into favour regaining different divisions up until August 2006 when they consolidated the whole account. The total reappointment was made by former 303 account director John Downing who was heading up the HBF marketing department at the time. John Le Cras has previously worked with Meerkats from his time at Murdoch University, where he headed up the marketing department.
Meerkats partner Ronnie Duncan told Campaign Brief that HBF felt it was time for a change as the market they operate in has become significantly more competitive.
“So they contacted us for our opinion on the link between their business strategy and their brand communications. They have some significant top-line objectives ahead of them over the next few years, and we described some different approaches about how they could achieve those. They’re a pillar brand in WA, so we’re obviously pleased to be working with them. They became that pillar brand because of a long line of smart people who have worked on the HBF brand over time, both on the agency and client side. So we feel a strong level of responsibility as we take that reputation forward into 2009 because ultimately our work will be judged in the light of that legacy.”
Meerkats has also stepped away from any future RAC Insurance work. The agency had been acting as a consultant and working on project work on RAC Travel and RAC Brand Communications.
23 Comments
Wow!! I am so proud of you Kats… HBF are yet to realise just how lucky they are to have you as their agency… What smart people they must have working there! CONGRATULATIONS!! 🙂
Bloody hell. That’s big news!
As you say CB, there has been lots of rumours about 303 being dumped but I just put it down to a bit of shit-stirring from vested interests. Goes to show that where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
So they’re going for strategy over creative?
Well done Meerkats. What a blow to 303 though.. I’m feeling for ya guys!
you know what they say about card houses, all it takes is one to fall…
strategy over creative indeed. good luck with that
“An extensive review” meant talking to one agency. 303 were not involved in the review. It appears great work counts for little when you can work with your “mate”
That’s a bit harsh 3.57. I know you must be disappointed with the loss (clearly you work at the agency) but the same claim could have been leveled at you when you first picked up HBF. Your ex account director John Downing appointed his “mates” at your agency when he moved from 303 to work for the client and pulled the business out of Gatecrasher. I understand you must be disappointed but just because these things happen in a small town doesn’t make them less considered decisions.
Strategy over creative?
1) I think 303 are starting to believe their own publicity as you could hardly call HBF’s work hugely creative.
2) The two go together. Strategy leads to good creative.
Anyone who thinks a client would move a $10M+ account to another agency for a “mate” is grasping at straws to overcome their disappointment. And to be honest, given the two Meerkats partners, the approach is more than likely to be strategy AND creative – again, something that doesn’t happen a lot in this small town. Well done Meerkats.
christ, 10 million bucks spent in WA alone!! no wonder they are moving agencies!!
Sympathy Fuck.
In the past few days you have attacked Marketforce over the shopfront ambient, 303 over IKEA and now Meerkats over the HBF win . That only leaves a couple of shops you could be working at. Be careful. Small towns have long memories. Look forward to your appraisal of the Brand’s latest win;-)
CB; you mentioned an extensive review. How extensive was it? Did Marketforce participate? Did Gatecrasher participate? Did Linc or Braincells get a look in? Did anyone besides Meerkats (and presumably 303) know this was happening? I know we didn’t. How can the marketing department present this as a sound business decision to the HBF board?
9:56pm (and presumably from 303) we wrote “extensive review” because that’s what the HBF press release said and we have no reason to think any different. Marketforce have a major conflict with SGIO which obviously ruled them out. As for the others, this is just a bit of idle speculation to keep the discussion going…. MAYBE, having left Gatecrasher in 2006, HBF felt they would rather try someone else. Maybe Linc and Braincells were considered too low profile or not quite large enough to handle the business. Maybe, because RAC rules The Brand out and because the town is frustratingly small when it comes to agency choices, the client used common sense and did not want to waste the time of Perth’s smaller agencies.
One thing that is certain is accounts like HBF do not take decisions like these lightly so I’m sure they will have no trouble justifying their choice to their board. After all they are moving their business to an agency that is respected (and certainly not underestimated) by every other serious agency in Perth. And it’s not like this move hasn’t been the topic of industry speculation for at least six months.
This whole thread opens up this much broader topic of the lack of choice that Perth clients have these days when it comes to putting their account up for review. I’ve had this discussion with several clients and agency heads over the past five years or so and I think it’s one of the main reasons why so few large account reviews have occured. One prominent client even told me of their frustration and disappointment with their existing agency before admitting that the only other two agencies they were interested in considering a move to had conflicts.
Take HBF – personally I believe Meerkats, going on the reasoning above, are the only agency without a conflict that could possibly handle a blue-chip client of that size. It’s a bonus to HBF that John Le Cras already has worked with Meerkats so he knows their capabilities already. The win is a great reward for the effort Meerkats have put into branding themselves as a viable alternative to Perth’s big three agencies. It is going to be a challenge for Meerkats and I’m sure they realise they definitely are going to have to improve their creative offering if they are going to make a good fist of the HBF account. And, reading between the lines of John Le Cras and Ronnie Duncan’s comments, the pressure is on them to perform.
Disagree? Agree?
Dude, if you’re gonna have a go at me, at least get the name right.
‘Sympathy’ Fuck. Had a few of those in my time…
No one is agreeing or disagreeing with you Kim!
I think think that’s because what you wrote is well reasoned makes a lot of sense when you look at it that closely. I also like the way you supported HBF in what would have definitely been a considered decision by them.
I’m also interested in your thoughts on Meerkats, but I’ll save that for when we next meet. J.
More idle discussion to keep the thread going (although it looks like its end is near). It has been suggested that this account move is more about working with your mates than a considered business decision. The reason people suspect this is that we’ve all seen it happen. I’ve worked in this industry for over a decade. Looking back over that time, in the account moves (both to and fro) that I’ve been involved in, I reckon only half were made for sound defensible business reasons. An old boss of mine once said, people always find a way to work with the people they like. Thoughts anyone?
well done Ronnie and Mike!
“people always find a way to work with the people they like” and so they should. I agree 100% with your old boss 5.38.
I hate to take my hat off to Meerkats but they will be able to handle HBF just as well as 303. Lindsay can only carry the business so far.
I think it’s more a matter of wanting to work with people they respect than like.
As agencies we tend to pride ourselves on our creative successes, but these have more limited appeal among our clients. Of course, there are some clients who really dig the whole pats-on-the-back-in-the-Subi ad scene – they will always seek out the agencies and industry figures that indulge them. But there is an increasing number of clients who realise that the economic environment is changing and, for their business to thrive, they need to be addressing questions of bottom line and market share – things that require great depth of understanding from their agency to get right in communications. If we looked around the Perth ad scene today, how many suits and creatives could we say really understand the brands they work on and how many are simply trying to fit Perth-shaped clients into international-shaped award holes?
Having once worked in the industry, a very wise Account Director told me you won business on great creative but kept it with great account service. Great account service doesn’t mean sucking up to your clients, it means being prepared to invest time and energy (and yes, that does cost money) in having people dedicated to understanding as much as they can about your business. It doesn’t mean putting a great team on to win the business and then moving on to other things once the business is safe, nor does it mean continually running after competing clients or bad-mouthing anyone who has a different point of view. I am sure it would have been very difficult for HBF to have taken this decision and it would not have been done without due warning. Congratulations Meerkats and commiserations 303.