RAC appoints The Brand Agency ending 9 year relationship with Wunderman Thompson
Following a 6 month pitch process, RAC has ended it’s long term relationship with Wunderman Thompson and appointed a new creative agency, The Brand Agency.
RAC Chief Member Officer Peter Williams said the appointment comes at an exciting time for the organisation.
“We’re thrilled to be partnering with The Brand Agency to further strengthen our brand and awareness of the important work we do to make life better for our members and the WA community,” Williams said.
“As a purpose-led member organisation, we’re committed to creating a safer, more sustainable and connected Western Australia, and our creative agency plays a big part in bringing this vision to life.
“We’re looking forward to working with The Brand Agency to cement our creative and strategic direction, drive positive change in the WA community, and offer great value to our members.”
The Brand Agency Managing Director Nick Bayes said the partnership is an exciting opportunity for the agency.
“We’re very excited to be working with one of Western Australia’s most trusted brands and an organisation which gives so much back to the WA community.
“We look forward to supporting RAC in its vision to create a better Western Australian for everyone.”
The appointment follows a six-month competitive tender process, including a strategic and creative review. The Brand Agency, Wunderman Thompson and an un named east coast network were involved in the final stages of the pitch.
“We’d like to thank all agencies who were involved in the tender process,” Williams said.
“We’d also like to extend a special thank you to the team at Wunderman Thompson, whom we’ve worked very closely with for the past nine years and who have created some incredibly successful campaigns for RAC in this time, including the RAC re-brand, the Attention Powered Car and the Elephant in the Wheatbelt.”
The RAC is one of Western Australia’s largest accounts. Both Wunderman Thompson and The Brand Agency are part of the WPP agency network.
19 Comments
I feet for WT who had to experience the pressure of a long 6 month unpaid creative review.
A 6-month creative review? That’s horrible. I know it’s a big account, but what kind of relationship starts with a 6-month pitch? I don’t think anyone has won – except RAC.
Big win for Brand and big boots to fill! Wunderman will bounce back, they’re a talented bunch.
Who is RAC kidding? Since when is flogging insurance policies being ‘purpose led’?
No agency deserves to be treated like that.
Congratulations to WT, losing RAC will set you free. super talented people doing average work usually means it’s time to move on. you guys and girls will be more than fine.
Hopefully this will erase that terrible yellow outline campaign for good.
Congratulations WT on the sustained creative success you’ve delivered time and time again for RAC, excited to see where this now takes your business and the talented people within it.
Ad Dad, you may be right but it’s still an awful process to be put through & the reality is, some WT people are probably getting retrenched via zoom this week.
A sad day for WPP agency network and a great day for WPP agency network. At least the account stays close to home (pun intended).
That is a very long time to wait for any agency. To all the marketing managers out there, let’s never do this to an agency again…
All the best to Brand, but jeez it looks like WT have really been put through the wringer on this one. After 9 years of working on the account, it feels unnecessary to put them through a 6-month unpaid review.
It’s disappointing to see brands treating agencies, and the people who keep them running day-to-day, this way.
So what? Wunderman and Brand are just two heads of the same WPP beast both under the rule of the same master.
Wunderman will lay off a few people. Brand will hire a few. Those that Wunderman lays off who don’t go Brand will fill the spots left by those whom Brand hired from other agencies – and the merry-go-round will continue. There’ll be a big new positioning campaign that the PR will say is reinventing RAC for a digital age or a millennial future or post-COVID epoch. Then things will slowly slip back into doing the same generic shite that is the rest state for these big accounts. And so, like the sand through the hourglass… etc etc.
Can’t say I’m losing a lot of sleep over WPP being stuck in a 6 month pissing game against itself. And WPP will get its pound of flesh back one way or another.
Empathy loading…. …… ……
What sort Millennial BS is that? There’s a lot of people I feel sorry for in this world – and overpaid hacks (I include myself in that group) ain’t one of them. If you’re working for a global business while making ads for an insurance company – what do you think is going to happen when said insurance company decides it’s going to going to move in with the cheaper/cooler partner. Who were you expecting loyalty from? JWT had a good run. Now it’s the next suckers turn.
That’s life. We’ve all been there.
Anyone else notice that the campaigns referenced as good was all old JWT work?
Remember when big clients used to make brave decisions and go with exciting smaller agencies occasionally and really shake things up and help build amazing legacies like R&I/BankWest and a tiny new 303 or HBF and Gatecrasher. Now it’s so boring.
I remember when Brand lost RAC before and people where crying in the office. At least they have returned home.
Why did it ever leave Brand in the first place? They always did their best work on this account.