Wimpey reviews 4m business

Wimpey Homes, the UK’s biggest housebuilder, has confirmed that it is reviewing its 4m creative advertising accounts, handled on a regional basis by five different agencies.

The news comes a week after Zenith, the Cordiant-owned media buying shop, unexpectedly resigned the 4m media-buying account after holding it for less than a year. Its sister creative agency Team Saatchi has said that it has also resigned the creative work for Wimpey’s Luton, Southern and Eastern regional offices.

The other agencies currently working for Wimpey are McCann-Erickson Birmingham, Stowe Bowden Wilson, Robson Brown and The Morgan Partnership.

Malcolm Pitcher, marketing director of Wimpey, says: “We’ve been looking at a number of conventional and other agencies. We’ve spoken to one or two of our current agencies, and a couple of others, and I hope to have a decision before the end of the year.”

He denies rumours that production house Parker Baines had been given overall responsibility for the production of the ads, with the brief to source creative work for each of Wimpey’s nine regional businesses, although he admits that he has spoken to Parker Baines.

A source at one agency which has discussed the account with Wimpey says: “It’s a nightmare. They place 100 ads a week, and they’ve got nine different regions which are autonomous in terms of marketing. It would be incredibly difficult to have centralised creative work. And it’s a very time-intensive job.”