Lloyds TSB to review £3.9m Goldfish brief

Financial services brand Goldfish is set to review its &£3.9m advertising and media business, after being bought by Lloyds TSB from Centrica for &£112.5m last week.

In January, lead agency TBWA/ London created a television and cinema campaign to promote Goldfish loans (MW January 9). But the agency has since won the Abbey National business and is unlikely to retain Goldfish. In November last year, Centrica centralised its media into Manning Gottlieb OMD, but all Lloyds TSB media is handled by Zenith Optimedia.

Lloyds TSB, which already held a 30 per cent stake in Goldfish Bank, says it will keep the brand but could not confirm which marketing staff would be retained. Goldfish has been without a marketing director since Centrica dropped the post in April and moved Charlie Herbert into a group-wide role.

Earlier this year, Goldfish put its personal loans direct marketing account up for pitch but abandoned the review after a change of strategy. DP&A is the lead direct marketing agency.

The Goldfish brand was set up as a customer loyalty scheme for Centrica’s energy customers. Centrica says Goldfish made a loss of &£30m for the first six months of the year and that it is losing &£45m on the sale, but adds the brand sat awkwardly with the rest of its businesses.