Direct Line Group has moved its chunky UK media account – for Direct Line, Churchill insurance and Green Flag – to Dentsu’s Carat. Carat won a three-way pitch against WPP’s EssenceMediacom, Publicis’ Spark Foundry and Omnicom Media Group so it’s a big win for the agency, recovering after a fallow couple of years, as the four big holding cokpanies would surely have thrown all they had at a consistent £100m advertiser.
Not such good news for EssenceMediacom which has seen some business slip away recently. Merging Essence, hitherto a digital specialist with the mighty Mediacom always looked a bit lumpy, especially with the smaller Essence seemingly in the driving seat.
Carat has had a good run and, so far, Western clients seem unperturbed about Dentsu’s ongoing reorganisation with Japanese execs holding nearly all the senior positions following the departure of Wendy Clark.
Carat UK CEO Clare Chapman says: “I am super-proud of our Carat team who seamlessly integrated our deep media expertise with that of Merkle Media and the wider Dentsu CXM specialism, to bring to life a total customer experience proposition for Direct Line Group.”
