FCB Africa has emerged as the winner of the consumer component of the Barclays Africa Group advertising account. The financial services group, which includes Absa in South Africa, split its account into B2B and B2C components. Mortimer Harvey has won the business-to-business component.
David Wingfield, head of marketing at Barclays Africa Group, would only say that as part of its RFP Barclays Africa has “taken the next step of our process with selected agencies in the B2B and B2C space,’ which includes a commercial negotiation. A number of internal governance approvals also still need to be addressed in order for Barclays Africa to conclude any formal agreements.
Brett Morris, FCB Africa CEO, confirmed that the agency has been informed that it has been chosen to manage the consumer account, as well as that the formal agreement is still being negotiated.
Agencies working on Barclays Africa have included The Jupiter Drawing Room (Johannesburg), Base Two, Mortimer Harvey, Publicis Machine and Rogue among others. The entire business was out to pitch, except for sponsorship, brand design and internal change management (Rogue). During the procurement phase, Wingfield made it clear the group was looking for a more-efficient agency model that saved time and cost, and offered a higher business return.
Absa spends more than R429 million on advertising and marketing activities in SA alone, according to Nielsen’s AIS/Adindex ranking (2014). The Barclays Africa Group is active in Botswana, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Seychelles, SA, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
– by Herman Manson
Source: Marklives
