Barclays hands £6m Woolwich brief to BBH

Barclays Bank has ousted Publicis from the £6m Woolwich advertising account and handed the business to Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH).

Barclays, which acquired the Woolwich account in October 2000, has decided to consolidate the advertising for the the two pieces of business into one agency, and BBH already handles the advertising for Barclays. Publicis held the Woolwich account for four years.

There was no formal pitch for the account and no other agencies were considered.

Woolwich marketing director Kieron Letts says the decision was based on the need to create a unified voice for the Barclays group. He says: “We want a clear and more consistent message delivered through a smaller group of partners.”

This is the second major account move in Woolwich in three months. Barclays shifted the £14m Woolwich media planning and buying account from incumbent Optimedia to Starcom Motive in March. Starcom already held Barclays’ £15m account.

Last month, Barclays recruited a team of marketers from a range of sectors. Liz Sinclair was poached from BT Together, where she was brand manager, to become head of campaign management for business banking. Ray Huntziger joined from Unilever to take up a position as head of production, and Gary Twelvetrees, EMAP’s retail marketing director, became Barclays’ head of campaign management for group projects. All three report to marketing operations director Andrew Gillespie.