Adam&eveDDB must be getting rather fed up with this.
As if creative agencies as a group didn’t have enough on their plate, another big account has departed the agency to put its money elsewhere: Lucozade its switching its efforts to social with We Are Social, here featuring Anthony Joshua and some runners.
@anthonyjoshua TLM hypeman 🔊 Bringing that @Lucozade energy.
This brings and end to a five-year relationship, latterly on a project basis. In March an even more venerable client Lloyds Bank departed the agency, with its new CMO saying it was now looking for a “seamless end-to-end experience.” This included an absolutely terrible ad campaign from Publicis. Chosen despite its newly-awarded tenure of rival bank Santander.
Lucozade says: “We are incredibly grateful for the hard work and dedication that Adam & Eve/DDB gave our brand over the five years we worked together. We are immensely proud of our work together on Lucozade’s masterbrand campaign, ‘Bring the energy’, which launched last year. This remains our current creative ad platform and the ads continue to perform well.
“We recognise the powerful role that social media can play for our brand and we were thrilled to bring We Are Social on board as a new partner for social last year.”
A&E CEO Miranda Hipwell (polite as ever) says: “We’re incredibly proud of the work we’ve created with Lucozade. From repositioning the brand to ‘Bring the energy’ to creative highlights such as a unique collaboration with iconic fashion house Sports Banger and brand activations starring the likes of Jude Bellingham and Amelia Dimoldenberg – each one a testament to a bold and collaborative agency/client relationship that came to an amicable end last year. As the brand enters a new chapter, we wish everyone involved continued success and look forward to seeing where they take it next.”
A&E has seen a number of top level departures recently including CCO Richard Brim and CSO Martin Beverly to set up Ace of Hearts but this probably goes deeper than that. Big clients, in the UK at least, are losing faith in above the line advertising although their efforts to do better elsewhere (as with Lloyds) hardly seem to justify it.
Agencies, even ones as good as A&E, seem to be taking it on the chin. It would be refreshing if one of them said: “we think the client is absolutely nuts.”
