Publicis has landed another giant account: Santander’s global creative and media. The business was handled in the UK (which Santander is threatening to leave) by House337 and Carat. House has worked for Santander in various guises for 20 years.
It’s unusual for a big client to ask for creative and media pitches on a winner takes all basis. Publicis pitched against WPP and IPG (hardly in the strongest position as it’s planning to merge with Omnicom.) WPP’s T&PM handles Nat West which may have been an issue.
Santander has been running a campaign termed ‘It starts here’ for most of its businesses and it seems that may continue.
House337 says: “We are incredibly proud of our longstanding and successful 20-year partnership with Santander. The double Effie award-winning “Bank of Antandec” is a big part of recent success and we’re immensely proud of the contribution it’s made to driving brand growth and raising awareness of important messages linked to fraud prevention and financial education.
“We’re also incredibly proud to have created a standout campaign for Santander Corporate and Commercial Banking with Succession’s Brian Cox, and to see our global claim for Santander ‘It starts here’ live in LatAm and Europe.”
It’s another stroke of misfortune for House337, once WCRS and now owned by Next 15. The mighty Publicis new business juggernaut is pretty hard for anyone to derail at the moment, national or global.