Unlimited/Pablo combo nabs more UK government business

M&C Saatchi finally has a challenger for UK government business, a combo of Unlimited and Pablo (officially the Cabinet Office’s “standby” agency) has nabbed the Department of Business and Trade’s UK creative account (formerly with M&C which retains the international business.)

This comes on top of recent wins the Met Police and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Unlimited, formerly Don Elgie’s Creston, was recently bought by Accenture Song. The CRM-based agency has revenue of about £40m.

DBT deputy director of communication and marketing David Watson says: “We were extremely impressed by the vigour and bright ideas that Unlimited and Pablo showed us at the pitch.

“I’m certain they will bring fresh creativity to our national challenge of getting Britain exporting, and I’m looking forward to working with their team across all parts of our UK-focused business.”

Unlimited president Tim Bonnet says: “The DBT is one of the driving forces of our economy so to be enlisted to help accelerate growth is a massive honour. We can’t wait to get started on creating exciting behaviour change work that will ultimately benefit everyone in the UK.”

The Unlimited/Pablo combo will now, presumably, be a contender for one of the political parties in a General Election year. The Election is expected in the autumn although bad results in this week’s local elections may prompt PM Rishi Sunak into going early in June to thwart rival Tory leadership bids.

There may be even more ads than before (social media is now the main battleground.) ITV confirmed to the Guardian recently that it’s able to run paid-for political ads on streaming platform ITVX, which is not covered by existing rules.