The&Partnership confirms NatWest win from M&C Saatchi
The&Partnership has officially wrested the NatWest banking account from M&C Saatchi following its appointment to handle next year’s campaign. At the time NatWest said M&C remained its agency of record (AOR.)
T&P has a longstanding relationship with NatWest owner RBS through its studio at RBS HQ in Edinburgh and was always likely to have its eye on the main business – one of the points of such relationships.
But it’s a big win for T&P and its London CEO Sarah Golding, who also led the T&P-led WPP consortium that retained Centrica in a pitch against Publicis Groupe.
T&P now finds itself in an interesting position vis a vis WPP which owns 49 per cent off Johnny Hornby’s mini holding company, also the owner of media agency m/SIX, which recently spread its wings by winning the Amami conglomerate in India. M/SIX is also part of WPP’s GroupM media operation. T&P also owns a sizeable PR operation and, in some ways, is closer to the integrated model WPP CEO Mark Read covets than other wholly-owned parts of his empire.
Losing NatWest is the last thing M&C, currently wrestling with an accounting restatement, needs. It looks more and more likely the publicly quoted M&C network will be sold. M&C’s sports agency is still working with NatWest.