Saatchi & Saatchi on cusp of 20m Barclays Capital win

Saatchi & Saatchi is poised to win the consolidated £20m global advertising business for Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of Barclays.

The Publicis-owned network is believed to have pitched against Omnicom’s TBWA in a final shoot-out for the account, following a review handled by the AAR. A number of undisclosed agencies were involved at an earlier stage.

Any appointment is believed to hinge on the final say of Barclays Capital chief executive Bob Diamond. Saatchi is expected to present its ideas to him in the next week.

Diamond, also Barclays president and chief executive of Barclays Global Investors and Barclays Wealth, is expected to rubber-stamp the appointment later this month.

The investment bank called the review in September last year. It wanted a single network with offices in New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo and London to create a global brand-building campaign.

The account was previously split across a number of roster agencies around the world, with Omnicom specialist financial subsidiary Doremus handling the UK and Europe business. It is expected to be retained by Barclays Capital and will work with the financial company on a project basis.

Barclays Capital’s global work is expected to be a business-to-business campaign aimed at large global corporations, financial institutions and governments to whom the division provides financing and risk management solutions.

A Barclays Capital spokeswoman says it is in the final stages of a pitch, but no decision has been made. Neither Saatchi nor TBWA were available to comment as Marketing Week went to press.