Furniture giant IKEA is reviewing its ad and media agencies in what is reported to be a ‘procurement led’ exercise.
UK and Ireland marketing manager Peter Wright says (through clenched teeth no doubt): “We continue to work happily with our agencies but, to be expected for a multinational organisation, our procurement team occasionally reviews suppliers of marketing services.”
Which must be a rather nasty surprise for creative agency Mother (media is handled by Aegis’s Vizeum) which produced arguably the best campaign of 2014 for IKEA (latest instalment below).
This must have cost a fortune, of course, and maybe IKEA is just trying to screw its agencies on price. IKEA, a Swedish company, always has the capacity to surprise with its advertising choices, now and then placing business with the diaspora of Swedish creatives who have recently found themselves in big jobs in US-owned agencies.
But if Mother loses this one there should be a steward’s inquiry. Mind you, this campaign has been justly compared to Fallon’s famous efforts for Sony a few years ago – ‘Bouncing Balls’ etc – and Sony promptly departed Fallon.
