Ogilvy not pitching for Old Mutual

MarkLives.com last week received the following statement from Ogilvy Cape Town, which has held the account these past 22 years:

“Old Mutual, Ogilvy Cape Town's and Ogilvy Johannesburg's financial services client have decided to put their creative business out to pitch later this year and the Ogilvy Group SA decided that neither Ogilvy Cape Town nor Ogilvy Johannesburg (who share the account) would participate.”

Old Mutual also sent in the following statement:

In recent years, Old Mutual South Africa (OMSA) has begun re-positioning itself as the leading investment and savings champion in South Africa, which signals a significant change from long-standing perceptions of the company as a traditional life assurer.

In line with OMSA's forward-looking business strategy, the company wishes to continue building its brand and strengthening its footprint in South Africa in an effort to become more relevant to a larger customer segment.

Old Mutual sees it as an opportune time to open up room for new ideas in its above-the-line advertising, by inviting selected agencies to engage with the company in a bidding process for its advertising account. We are currently in this bidding process.

OMSA has therefore given three months notice to Ogilvy as required by the current contract in force.

“We are very grateful to Ogilvy for their incredible support in building our strong Old Mutual brand over the past 22 years. They have demonstrated a solid understanding of our business and we have extended an invitation to them to participate in the pitching process for the new contract,” says Stephen Cahill, Old Mutual Marketing Executive.

The account for First National Bank is also out to pitch, according to a recent tweet from FNB head of media Gisele Wertheim-Aymes.