BRAND INFO gathered that among the agencies which took part in the keenly contested pitch were Centrespread Advertising, the incumbent on the account, STB-McCaan, Insight Communications and Noah’s Ark Communications. From the four advertising agencies, the team of the panelists however, settled for Insight Communications and Noah’s Ark, according to sources.
Weeks after the company announced to the two agencies their success at the pitch, the final result is still being expected. Kola Ayanwale-led Centrespread had handled the account at inception before it moved to Prima Garnet.
The Airtel Nigeria ad account became controversial when the relationship with Prima Garnett became sour. Prima Garnet, prior to the sour relationship with Airtel Nigeria, had dropped the Ogilvy name and Ogilvy &Mather (O & M), which used to be its global affiliate.
O&M dropped the Airtel Nigeria account on Prima Garnett Ogilvy’s laps following the acquisition of the GSM network operator – then known as Zain Nigeria by Bharti Airtel.
O&M is Bharti’s global ad agency. But in 2012, relations between the two partners got rancid after a new ad agency known as Scanad Nigeria opened shop. Scanad is an affiliate of Scan group of East Africa, which also controls Ogilvy Africa among other agency brand names in its network. Prima Garnett dragged O&M and Scanad to court on the premise that Scanad is a Nigeria subsidiary of O&M.
This, however, made the Airtel Nigeria ad account to “quietly” move to STBMcCaan. No pitch was conducted before STB-McCaan was asked to take over the account.
For Noah’s Ark, having the account in its portfolio is not a bad idea. After all, it would deepen its profile.
Though young, Noah’s Ark has been wining some accounts in recent time. On the other hand, Insight is like the proverbial old warhorse.
The foremost agency founded by Biodun Shobanjo is reputed for winning such mega businesses. However, the multi-billion dollar questions on the lips of followers of events in the industry are that would owners of Airtel rely on the “rich experiences” of Insight and award the business to it?
Or would the owners “try something new” with a young but promising agency such as Noah’s Ark and award the business to the firm?
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