Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) has today
announced the appointment of J. Walter Thompson, Sydney, as its new
creative partner.
The selection follows a creative review which began last December,
following Vodafone's split with Cummins&Partners after only two
years. And two years seems to be the norm for Vodafone in recent times: Cummins won the business in November 2014. Prior to Cummins, the account was with WPP's Ogilvy, which won the business from Host, Sydney in February, 2012. Host won the business in February 2010.
Says Ben McIntosh, consumer business director, VHA: "We have selected
JWT via our long-term relationship with WPP as Vodafone's full service
marketing communications agency.
"We believe JWT has brought together a formidable team that will help
position Vodafone as a real alternative in the telecommunications
market."
According to McIntosh, bringing the key marketing
disciplines closer together under the WPP AUNZ umbrella is an
opportunity for the company to streamline and simplify its local
marketing operations.
Says McIntosh: "Having everything housed
under WPP provides the added benefit of enabling us to coordinate our
efforts to be more agile, responsive and smart in our approach to
reaching customers, consumers and businesses."
WPP
AUNZ CEO Mike Connaghan said that the shift to a tighter, more
integrated agency model is about enabling Vodafone to work seamlessly
with best in breed experts from across the WPP AUNZ group.
Says
Connaghan: "This is a great example of our strategy in action. It's
about bringing together the best people and thinking from across our
group to create better, smarter ideas to grow their business."
J.
Walter Thompson, including the CX expertise from digital agency
Webling, will work across the entire communications spectrum including
brand and retail comms, CVM, social and CX/UX.
J. Walter
Thompson, Sydney MD Jenny Willits, said the agency was thrilled to add
Vodafone to its client roster and become the latest market to be part of
WPP and Vodafone's global relationship.
Says Willits: "It's an
exciting time to be leading the creative focus for Vodafone. With new
teams on both the client and agency side, plus the opportunity to extend
our working relationship with our sister agency MEC, we believe our
collective teams are truly set up for success and will drive growth for
the Vodafone brand.
"This latest win caps off a fantastic growth
period for the agency and we are looking forward to bringing our ideas
to market and being a major part of Vodafone's success going forward."