Qantas picks Droga5 in shoot-out with Mojo – digital duties to Amnesia Razorfish and R/GA
CB Exclusive – Campaign Brief believes Qantas has picked Droga5 Australia to look after its business after an almost one year pitch process.
Back in March Qantas shortlisted Droga5 and Publicis Mojo (includes Amnesia Razorfish) for the creative and digital part of its account from the original long list which included Leo Burnett and BWM – and according to one source, R/GA New York.
Calls to David Nobay (far left, with Dave Droga) went unanswered this morning to confirm the agency had won the business. However, a well-placed source says that is indeed the case and a formal announcement should be made later today.
Media, expected to also be announced later today, was a shootout between OMD and ZenithOptimedia.
After a disastrous start to the year – with the loss of the prestigious CUB business to Clemenger BBDO Melbourne – Droga5’s fortunes have changed for the better. In March the agency snared the giant Woolworths business in a two-way shootout with Ogilvy Sydney.
UPDATE. THE OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Qantas today announced it had concluded its advertising agency review and appointed its new roster of agencies including Droga5 as the new lead creative agency.
Droga5 Australia has been appointed as the lead creative planning agency globally. This will include strategic input from David Droga, Chairman and Founder of the agency and his team in New York.
Zenith Optimedia will continue as the global media agency and will partner with Droga5 in key offshore markets to provide a global network of creative and media expertise.
The review focused on the quality of strategic and creative capabilities relative to the Qantas brand, including retail experience and campaign success.
The new agency model will also see digital and experiential specialists working closely with the two lead agencies, Droga5 and Zenith Optimedia.
Publicis Group’s Amnesia Razorfish will work in partnership with Zenith Optimedia on the digital media strategy and R/GA will be contracted for specialist digital projects.
Publicis Mojo will continue to work as a strategic adviser and on a project basis.
Qantas has also appointed Subnine to support key sports sponsorships and Play Communication will support a range of arts and entertainment properties.
The new roster will commence in the new financial year. Qantas would like to thank Enth Degree for their independent facilitation and all those involved in the extensive pitch process.
UPDATE 1: CB has since contacted New York-based Aussie expat Nick Law (left), R/GA’s chief creative officer, who was in Sydney last week.
Law told CB he is delighted to be on the roster and assures us that it won’t be too long before R/GA opens up a Sydney office. CB guesses to will be early next year.
Rob Greenberg, R/GA chairman, CEO and global chief creative officer, first revealed plans for a Sydney office in an exclusive live video interview with CB during D&AD week in London back in April.
UPDATE 2: Following Qantas’ announcement of its new agency roster, Craig Davis, Co-Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, Publicis Mojo, said: “We’re really excited that Qantas has added three Publicis Groupe companies to its new agency roster.
“Zenith Optimedia has worked really hard to retain the media planning and buying, Amnesia Razorfish has been appointed to the roster and Publicis Mojo will be retained on major strategic and creative projects. This is a great outcome for the group.
“We’d also like to thank the great team of people who have worked tirelessly on the Qantas pitch to make this happen.”
5 Comments
“Campaign Brief believes Qantas has picked Droga5”? Believes?
The growing perception over the last year or more that Mojo has become a less than creative shop, one run by an ECD who’s shifted the focus away from creativity and toward the bottom line, with top talent running out the door on every level except the digital of course, has it would appear conquered the significant advantage the agency had from a built in relationship to the brand via a close personal friendship with the head of marketing at the flying roo.
Brand karma we’re thinking, and another lesson that while ‘mateship’ matters, this business is in the end all about the work.
With the brilliant concept and execution on ‘Moreing’ for Boost and now this win, D5 is on a roll, and one well deserved.
Drogalvy
Let’s hope THIS is the account D5 flexes its much-vaunted creative muscles on. Though if my and others’ experience with Qantas at a number of agencies is anything to go by, they won’t buy a great idea even if an agency is capable of conceiving it. The self-appointed guardians of the brand on the client side actively oppose anything even slightly wry or irreverent and won’t do anything that deviates from their very conservative view of what the brand stands for. And that’s why it never moves forward.
No matter what anyone says about the A380, that’s got to be one of the most ungainly aircraft ever to take to the skies.
Where’s the romance in flying these days? Does a plane like this capture anyone’s imagination? Is it not just an elephantine cargo carrier?
Incidentally…who was the butcher who sliced the wings from the Flying Kangaroo?
Take some time to take a look at historical photos of early Qantas planes, and you’ll see that the image on the tailplane in those times had a certain magic…an aspirational quality: something this is simply lacking from these latest incarnations of our national flag carrier.
Why not put wings on a kangaroo? Who was the literal-minded marketing peon whose idea it was to have them removed?
Bring back those wings, I say. Not just in the figurative, but also the literal, sense of the word.
Not just for our airline, but also for our nation. Our People.