Mother scoops £8.5m Observer
Guardian Newspapers has appointed the advertising agency behind ITV Digital’s “Monkey” ads to its 8.5m advertising account for The Observer.
The appointment of Mother follows a five-way pitch against Fallon, Leagas Delaney, Deakin Blazey and M&C Saatchi. Ogilvy & Mather, which has held the business since 1997, declined to repitch.
Guardian Newspapers marketing director Marc Sands says: “I’m not sure the ads developed in the past year or 18 months were strong enough to match the product. Guardian Newspapers has ambitious targets and needs ambitious ads.”
Sands adds that there would not be a radical change in marketing strategy and the advertising focus will stay on the product rather than the brand. He says: “It will be more of the same – only turbo-charged. Guardian Newspapers will never do a generic message.”
The Observer has the fastest growth rate of any national Sunday newspaper, with an average circulation of 472,711 for the period May to October 2001, up by 8.46 per cent on the same period last year. Sales for October compared with September were up 7.78 per cent to 483,062. However, The Sunday Times is the leading quality national newspaper by some way, with a circulation for May to October of 1,383,683, up 2.04 per cent.
Guardian Newspapers is also reviewing its direct marketing account held by KLP.
