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Johannesburg - Cell C, under newly appointed CEO Lars Reichelt, has put its R200m advertising account out to pitch after eight years with Net#work BBDO. But the incumbent is being given a chance to re-pitch against Ogilvy Johannesburg, Grey South Africa, Morris Jones and DDB.
The media planning and buying account is also up for grabs, with incumbent The Media Shop up against Carat, MediaCompete, Initiative Media and Starcom.
Reichelt, the German-born former head of Orascom Telecom's Bangladesh unit, feels there is a need to look at what's available in the market. Robin Mailer of Yardstick, the company handling the pitch, says the decision is not a reflection on Net#work.
"We're very disappointed, but we'll give it our best shot," says Net#work CEO Keith Shipley. "We have done some great work on the account over the years and have won numerous awards. It is the most-awarded cellular network operator, and now has nearly 7m subscribers."
Cell C is moving fast. The agencies were briefed yesterday and the pitches will be made on 9 and 10 October. A decision is expected the following week.
According to The Nielsen Company's AdEx, Cell C spent R230m on media advertising last year, compared with MTN's R470m and Vodacom's R440m.
Launched after the two industry giants, Vodacom and MTN, had already firmly established themselves, Cell C has always struggled to win a foothold in the South African market. Its owner, Oger Telecom of Dubai, has watched three CEOs and five marketing directors build up a mountain of debt as they battled against overwhelming odds.
Though Net#work has a chance to regain the confidence of the new CEO, history is against it. Once clients have decided to play the field, they seldom change their minds and re-appoint the incumbent agency. A recent study in the United States found incumbents retained the business about 10% of the time.
The competition is tough. Ogilvy is South Africa's biggest advertising and marketing group, and it has been fabulously successful in the last few years; DDB is a small-medium agency of about 60 people that was named AdReview Agency of the Year for 2008; Grey is respected for its strategic thinking, but has introduced a stronger element of creativity to its work in the last year; Morris Jones, another rather small shop, has a history of great creative work for blue chip clients such as Wimpy, Virgin Mobile and Southern Sun.
- Fin24.com