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AA reviews flagship account from adam&eveDDB

The UK’s AA (Automobile Association as was) is reviewing its account at adam&eveDDB after eight years. A&E is reportedly not repitching.

The agency change hardly comes as a surprise as the AA’s most recent work has singularly lacked A&E’s usual polish, suggesting it has been cobbled together elsewhere. The AA also has a new marketing boss in Will Harrison and relatively new owners in Towerbrook and Warburg Pincus, after delisting from the stock exchange. Any or all of such moves usually signal an agency review.

The AA says: “Following these changes, we have decided to take a fresh look and review our advertising agency with assistance from Oystercatchers.”

A&E has produced some good work over the years for the AA, most recently a puppet dog Tukker which became something of a viral hit. But many clients these days want, as an A&E executive remarked to me recently (not referring to AA), “hook-ups” rather than longer term relationships.

A&E has mixed fortunes on the new biz front recently, losing out in a pitch against VCCP for the combined Virgin Media/O2 account. Long-term client Catherine Kehoe at Lloyds Banking Group is also on her way to Nationwide Building Society, which may trigger reviews at both banks.

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