Special Group wins ANZ Creative Account after 4 way pitch including incumbent TBWA\Melbourne
Special Group Australia has won the highly coveted ANZ creative account following a competitive pitch including CHE Proximity, Hero and incumbent TBWA\Melbourne.
The win for Special Group, CB’s reigning Australian Agency of the Year, comes 10 years after TBWA (then Whybin\TBWA) took the business from M&C Saatchi, which had held the account for 14 years.
Over the last 25 years, ANZ and their agencies have consistently produced major award-winning campaigns, including ‘GAYTMS’, which was included in Campaign Brief’s Australian Campaigns of the Decade. The campaign won the 2014 Cannes Lions Outdoor Grand Prix and was also named the ‘Best Direct campaign in the World for 2014’ by the Big Won and #1 ‘Best of Print/Outdoor/Design for 2014’ by Creativity-online.com. It went on to win many other international awards that year and the next.
M&C Saatchi, Melbourne’s award-winning work for ANZ was a major contributor to their 2001 CB Australian Agency of the Year win.
35 Comments
… and now comes the true challenge for an agency of their size – can they take on a behemoth of an account like this and not have it destroy the culture and the ‘je ne sais quoi’ that has propelled them to the top of the heap in 2021.
Sometimes, the greatest threat to a creative culture is rapid growth. I hope this is not the case for them.
Someone called this a while ago. Big win for SG, big loss for TBWA.
Brilliant and the right decision to move to an agency who can/will deliver braver creative. Th current work from TBWA feels like they knew they had lost this account long before this pitch was called. Let’s hope the ANZ team lean and let them do it
TBWA NZ must be stoked that Special NZ have just won the Kiwibank account.
Unless Special NZ do the old switcheroo again and get tempted by an even bigger prize.
‘Th current work from TBWA feels like they knew they had lost this account long before this pitch was called.’
What makes you say that?
Which other agencies pitched?
Since Special brought in the new ECDs they have gone from a fledgling little agency that thought they were good to actually being good. What difference two guys can make. Well done.
Tom and Jules are the real deal. Huge congrats.
Agree, Tom and Jules have made a material impact. Cummins should have tried to retain them.
Bugger.
Agencies that pitched included Hero, CHEP, TBWA/Melbourne. Impressive effort by Special to win this one.
This will be a real testing time for Special. this could make or break them. the”Special’ sauce is the chaos in the way they work, driven by the management team. An account like this will need structure and discipline, which isn’t one of their strengths. good luck, i hope they make it work.
Awkward
Tom and Jules are great guys and great creative people. I worked with them at Cummins on Vodafone and they to be honest they were all at sea. Not because they were bad. but, you know, Voda.
This is a great test to see if Special can stretch their magic to Melbourne, recruit grown ups who will lead the account. Oh and do great work for the brand.
Tom and Jules didn’t create the Uber eats campaign. Which Special Group has largely dined out on. So now will be their biggest test.
Good luck one and all. Do great work.
Aha! The Worst Kept Secret in Town is out. Congrats Special. What a coup. If what ANZ wanted was creativity, they got it in spades. However, agree with previous that a behemoth like this can seriously impact culture, SPECIALly (see what I did there?) if client/agency are not 100% aligned on what ‘Creativity’ actually means. Wishing you the best of lucks.
The question back at you. Show me the campaigns that have stood out in the past couple of years.
Dave Hartman and Rebecca Stambanis need special mention for bringing this in for Special. Was as much a strategy pitch as anything else.
Guess there’s only so many times you can run the same campaign. Time to dust up the sequins people.
Ugh. Just answer the question.
Now that’s a big win baby! Congrats to all involved.
CHEP pitched for ANZ when they have ING as a client? I beg your pardon?
Congrats to Special. But let’s not take away from what TBWA has done on ANZ and give them due credit for what they have achieved on a very big and complex client. Name another Aussie (or even Global Brand) that has won Cannes Lions 6 out of 7 years in row. TBWA’s work also saw ANZ named Effies Advertiser of the Yea. And show me a bank doing better Home Loan or Business Banking ads in this country. Kudos TBWA.
And they left the agency. Just proving yet again that many of the awards we all cherish so much have a flagging relevancy in the eyes of clients. Well done TBWA good innings but the currency of the client is often different to that of the agency.
This must send jitters through the big old behemoths. An indie, lead by creatives, wins one of the Australia’s most corporate giants. If you’ve got good creatives hold onto them they’re beginning to become valuable.
Well said indeed. As is testament re many articles doing the marketing/advertising media rounds at the moment. Ahh the fresh winds of change….
You are joking arent you? CBA, NAB and Westpac all well ahead in terms of creative – esp over the past 2 years. Yes to TBWA for GayATM’s – no to TBWA for driving emotive brand building campaign platforms
Does that put TBWA in the running for NAB now? Now wouldn’t that make for some good karma.
Word on the street is that strategy also won the day, strongest and clearest out of all agencies. Well done to Bec and the team who I’m sure have provided fresh thinking about who ANZ need to be become.
I honestly couldn’t tell you what the current CBA and NAB campaigns are. Westpac does the emotional story telling stuff, but so many brands do that here in Auz that it doesn’t stand out.
Guys, your strategy is showing.
If you work in advertising you need to first get more aware and then more curious.
I am very well aware of innovative, ground-breaking campaigns from all over the world.
Less so of the boring, sentimental wallpaper served up in this category.
let’s be clear holding up GAYTM as outstanding, groundbreaking, brand building work is a big overstretch. It is a clever outdoor activation at best, relevant to a specific group of people. It has nothing to do with building and strengthening ANZ as a brand and clearly would not have driven a $ of business worth noting. Again well done to TBWA though, always tough when a long term relationship ends.This business can be cruel.
Get on my level
Oh, you must be great in meetings. They always say a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing.