Northern Rock starts 2m review

Northern Rock, the building society which converted to a bank on October 1, is reviewing its 2m advertising, media and direct marketing accounts.

All three areas have been handled by local Newcastle agency Cravens Advertising for over ten years.

Northern Rock assistant director of marketing Andy Kuipers says: “We felt it was good time to have a look at the market. We are very interested in value for money.”

For the past year the advertising, under the slogan Hard to Beat, has centred on raising awareness of the conversion and encouraging members to exercise their vote, rather than on brand building or product promotion.

It is not yet known whether Cravens will be asked to repitch, but Kuipers says a pitchlist will be drawn up before the end of the year. “I have an open mind as to whether the agency is based in London or not and also whether all the business goes into a full-service agency.”

No one from Cravens was available to comment. Northern Rock has 300,000 borrowers and 1 million savers.