Meerkats, Longtail, Mitchells and Spirit share Lotterywest business
Lotterywest has announced the appointment of its new communications and media partners after a lengthy tender process.
In a statement released this morning, Lotterywest said it has decided to use a modular approach for the management of communications and media services and brings together four partnerships with the following organisations:
• Campaign Advertising: Creative and Production Services awarded to Meerkats
• Media / Channel Planning Services awarded to Mitchell and Partners
• Online and Interactive Production Services awarded to Longtail Communications
• Graphic Design and Corporate Printing Services awarded to Spirit Visual Communications
“We congratulate all organisations who responded to the tender on theextremely high calibre of their submissions. The final decisions weremade after a very thorough, open and competitive process and we are nowlooking forward to the next era in our communications,” saidLotterywest Chief Executive Officer Jan Stewart.
The contracts are for an initial term of two years, with extension options available for a further three years.
Lotterywest’s current communication partner Marketforce has held theaccount for over 30 years. Our current media planning and buyingpartner Optimum Media Decisions (OMD), previously known as MediaDecisions, has also been a long term partner.
“On behalf of Lotterywest, I acknowledge our long and valuedpartnership with the Marketforce and the OMD teams. We thank them fortheir work with us over those years and for the many quality campaignsthey have created for Lotterywest, both for our games and our grantsprograms. We wish Marketforce and OMD every success for the future,”Stewart said.
Lotterywest will continue to work with our current partners during aperiod of transition, with the new contracts commencing on 5 November2010.
47 Comments
Wow – what a loss for MF. Sad to see a once mighty agency fall. Happens to all the greats in this industry though and I’m sure they’ll bounce back.
Congratulations to Meerkats and to Spirit (Nice one Tony!!). Two rockin agencies with great people at the helm…
Let me be the first to congratulate you all.
The right result!! Well done to all.
Condolences to MF you havent deserved this treatment.
meerkats = eastern states – wa jobs
who the hell are Spirit Visual Communications…
Want to see a magic trick? Poof! I just made your agency disappear!
Boy, Chewy and Ryan made a timely exit!
Amazing.
This changes everything for the Perth advertising scene.
No more giant – lots of David’s! Excellent work guys well done.
How awfully sad for MF, feels like a deathknell though I really hope not. They did some amazing work. Having said that, well done Meerkats.
“Anonymous said:
If it was about what’s currently hot in Perth, I would give the advertising and channel planning to Meerkats, the digital to Longtail and the design to Block.
July 4, 2010 6:01 PM”
Ah well, 2 out of 3 isn’t bad.
Anonymous
holy shit….
A sad day for the Marketforce crew after 30 great years – guys well done. I am sure you will bounce back – best of luck for the future – I wonder if anyone there is thinking 1 powerball….
Well done to Spirit. Keep up the great work Tony and crew!
Design and Print could possibly have done better. Let’s be honest work to date was mediocre. Did spirit get the gig based on no other agencies putting their hands up, or do you think it was based on their product experience?
Do they even have a web presence? Had a look and couldn’t find them?
Congrats to Meerkats and Longtail.
Big congrats to Meerkats… a huge win! (and the others)
Condolences to Marketforce – what a shame. Great work over the years.
Well done to Spirit. They’ve been steering Lotterywest in the right direction for a long time without shouting about how great they are like certain other agencies with less credentials.
I don’t think those of us at other big agencies around town should kid ourselves. This decision will hurt the other unsuccessful agencies just as much as MF. Meerkats phone must be ringing off the wall with creatives pushing past the women and children.
Those who criticise LW / Jan… They have treated MF no worse than MF treated all those staff they laid off in 2008/09
To those who are laid off: it will get better, and you’ll enjoy getting your life back!
Congratulations to the winners! Make the most of it! Bainy must be stoked!
I don’t know Spirit or their work. Love to know who else put their hand up for that bit of biz. If anybody did please let us know. anonymously of course. There must be plenty of agencies who could be achieving the same results, and as for steering Lotterywest in the right direction for years…..how?. Do they have a website. Love to see some of their other great work?
Congrats to the other winners. Meerkats would have been planning this for a year or so. A certain Mr Bain would surely have to have been one of the last pieces of the jigsaw to go into place. To be commended.
As night follows day MF should have seen this coming… they are surely top heavy now. some of the mid management must be pooing themselves. Shit happens…as they say.
Watch Marketforce now! Driscoll is one of the best there is. No way he won’t redefine the agency and come out fighting.
I was certain this was going to 303. They poached the LW planner from marketforce, have Perth’s biggest creative dept and a great set-up over east. What more could lotteries want?
Does a company need a website in order to be successful? I think Spirit prove that point.
Meerkats are going to be under the pump now.
Ikea and others went there for a small agency feel and now Meerkats is bigger than MF.
Congratulations to the Kats. When are you going to start an Eastern States agency?
I used to work at Marketforce and let me tell you,they are bigger than this. During my time there even though I never worked on the account I witnessed how in a few short years it became a bit of a nightmare. You just have to look at how the work has changed. That’s not MF’s doing I can assure you. Like 4.35 I actually think this is the best thing for these guys. For too long, upstairs in the creative agency at least, this piece of business has defined them. This is a chance for them to re- define themselves. It will be tough for the next few weeks, but MF are big powerful machine who are backed by Australasia’s largest and most successful coms group.
If you think this will break them, then you’re Lotto dreaming.
Good luck John and the rest of the team
Maybe there will finally be the opportunity for some junior creatives to get a foot in…
Condolences to my good mates at MF…
Congrats to Meerkats; an unsurprising but nevertheless thrilling win!
Congrats Mitchell’s!
The fact that Tony from Spirit headed the team that created the Lotterywest brand at his previous agency says a lot. It’s not often that the designer of a big brand like this is still steering the creative work years down the line.
@ 9.38 Spirit are a one man band and LW are Tony Clarke’s only client. That’s why they don’t need a website.
Congratulations to all the winners and all the commendations owing too you.
Meerkats, Longtail, Mitchells & Spirit.
Why so much talk about the 2nd place getter MF!?
Everyone had an equal opportunity – there is clearly better agencies out there that want it more than MF – hopefully their arrogance will subside somewhat.
I dont think MF deserve it – they have had 30 years to show their wares – most agencies need a lil less time.
MFlaid off so many talented people in 2008 – You look at those comments – now everyone is feeling sorry for them! .. DONT!
As Boby Dylan sang “The times are a changin”
The best talent won – simple as that!
Less talk about the 2nd best and more about the exciting times in the media landscape in W.A and to the winners of a proud West Australian brand!
6.47am
maybe Clems should look at buying into Meerkats? 😉
8.51 Wasn’t Russell Springham the senior creative at Enterprise Perth. I could be wrong? PS I have never met Tony, I’m sure he’s a very nice person. You appear to be taking his cause on personally. Its good that he has friends like yourself.
9.44pm.
I’m guessing that Meerkats will draw up the gangplank now and concentrate on servicing the brands they have just won. This is what they did after the hbf win. The other agencies in town will want to be sure they have been treating their best staff well over the last few months as their a sure to be a few gaps in the team to be filled.
Congratulations to all. Really interested in where Longtail takes LW’s digital game. I’m sure Carlo & co. will really take it up a notch.
Boby Dylan?
And it’s, ‘For the times they are a-changin’
Pedantic. I know. I’ll go back to work now.
Russell Springham was in Singapore when the Lotterywest brand was created. Colin Anderson was the Managing Director of Enterprise IG Perth and Tony Clarke was the senior creative.
Switza (WTF?)
You epitomise what’s wrong with this industry in Perth. Too many lightweights with very little brains and very big opinions. Marketforce has done a very good job for Lotteries over the years – if you bother to read things like their Annual Report (know what that is?), you’ll see a Lottery with the highest Lotto sales per capita in Australia and sales marketshare relative to the rest of Australia well above the WA population share. Keeping up? Not to mention a top 3 corporate brand in the state.
Now we all know that you are on of the so called talents culled in 2008 who remains bitter and twisted. We get it. But really, it is as you say time for change, so why don’t you give yourself a break and move on.
And to all the winners, hearty congrats you have won a great opportunity.
Congratulations. A fair tender process won by some fine teams at the top of their respective games.
8.51 – Thanks for clearing that up Tony.
I’m still curious as to if there were any other contenders for the work, and since there have been no postings suggesting this there can’t have been much ‘independent’ competition outside of the ad agencies.
Interesting how Lotterywest decided to go with tried and tested for the design and print and yet changed suppliers for everything else?
Onya Tony.
8.08.
I would be very surprised if at least one of the big agencies hadn’t put itself up for the advertising and design parts of the job. Which would make the decision to split the work more of a slap in the face for that particular agency
Does this mean the end to local production companies as well, with most of the big TV production now at Meekats, who keep most most of their production in house, and what they out source goes East? What to do?
A sizeable WA client choosing several niche, specialist agencies vs one generalist monster…. Probably the strongest signal yet that clients in Perth may have finally turned the corner.
Big agencies, a robot in Lost in Space WARNING, time to start investing seriously in competent professionals, rewarding them for their efforts and retraining your suits like there’s no tomorrow on the changing media landscape, or else, there’s going to be lots, lots more of this going on
1.12 I’m thinking Spirit were probably a shoe in. Small company, low overheads, competitive price, exiisting client relationship………..the lager agencies would have found it difficult to compete. Also, which of the agencies over there have the skill sets accross the board. Are most stll working with mac ops for their front line work? Perth still appears to be a few years behind the E. Coast.
11.24.
Evolve
5.47 Retaining your suits…yes the good ones, but most of the suits I have experienced are cowering ‘client driven’ – ‘happy as long as the clent was happy’ average Joe’s. Its a bitch of a job. This industry is all about retaining and hiring good staff when they become available.