by Sabrina Forbes. Red Cherry Interactive has worked with some of the biggest brands in the industry.
Tag archives: old mutual
The Suit: Don’t touch unit trusts
by Jason Harrison. As a junior suit assessing creative work, I’d never considered anything deeper than “I like it and it answers the brief” which, by every conceivable measure, is woefully inadequate.
Old Mutual appoints Publicis Communications
by Herman Manson. Old Mutual has appointed Publicis Communications as its new lead agency across the African continent, including South Africa.
Old Mutual out to pitch
by Herman Manson. The Old Mutual business, currently held by FCB Africa, is out to pitch.
Radar – now within range
by Herman Manson (@marklives) Radar has had its offices in the midst of a construction site for just over a year. It’s an easy allegory to describe the agency, which has been working hard to reinvent itself following the departure of three of its four partners just over a year and a half ago.
In 2006, four friends (Baphumze Msengana, Tricia Snowball, Karen Meyer and Jason Ray) left Ogilvy to launch Under the Radar (UTR) a specialist below the line agency. They had, says Ray, the last of the four left at the agency, believed that it was time to launch a new kind of agency that backed away from its reliance on traditional media, and had been in advanced talks with WPP, through Ogilvy, to back them. They got as far as looking for premises, but final approval just never arrived, so they departed and set up on their own.
Ray, who was Head of New Business at Ogilvy before helping launch UTR, says he knew the start-up agency would be OK when Old Mutual gave him an access card to Mutual Park at his going away party. The agency had signed Old Mutual as one of its founding clients.
UTR would live by three core rules, still in place today, says Ray. They would only work with clients they liked, they would avoid communication layering so that the client would always deal with the most senior person on the job, and accessibility and a focus on quality time will mean real agility inside the agency.
Under the Radar had been just that, operating under the radar from most of the advertising and marketing industry, but this is set to change. Ray has bought out his three partners, amicably, he says (one is rejoining agency as a staff member), and has evolved its full service communications offering. The agency has been rebranded as Radar.
Old Mutual, Draftfcb still negotiating over appointment as new agency
Old Mutual is still negotiating with its preferred bidder, Draftfcb, over its appointment of Draftfcb as its new ad agency. It will replace Ogilvy that held the account for some 22 years.
Ogilvy – we won’t pitch for Old Mutual
Following on news that Old Mutual is out to pitch we received the following statement from Ogilvy Cape Town which holds the account at the moment:
“Old Mutual, Ogilvy Cape Town’s and Ogilvy Johannesburg’s financial services client have decided to put their creative business out to pitch later this year and the Ogilvy Group SA decided that neither Ogilvy Cape Town nor Ogilvy Johannesburg (who share the account) would participate.”
Old Mutual advertising account up for grabs
Old Mutual is out to pitch in early August. Net#work BBDO, DDB, Lowes and FCB all pitching. Ogilvy CT must be holding its breath.