Post Office ants to get marching orders

The Post Office is axing the animated family of ants from its advertising after appointing Mother to handle its £20m above-the-line account.

The ants were created by the company’s previous agency Publicis to show how the Post Office’s over-the-counter services make customers’ lives easier. But it is thought that Mother’s first campaign for the brand later this year will take a completely new direction.

Mother declined to comment on the future of the ants as Marketing Week went to press, while a spokesman for the Post Office says: “We are exploring new ideas with Mother but it is too early to say what will happen to the ants.”

Mother was appointed to handle the business this week, as exclusively revealed on marketingweek.co.uk, following a final pitch againstthe DDB London and Grey London agencies.

The Post Office called the review in January, less than a year after reappointing Publicis in a statutory review. The move followed the appointment of Alan Cook as managing director and Gary Hockey-Morley as marketing director last year.

The previous review had been overseen by acting sales and marketing director Simon Carter but he left to join up with Thomas Cook soon after Hockey-Morley was handed the top job at the Post Office (MW October 26, 2006).

The most recent review, which was handled by The Haystack Group, did not affect Joshua, which was also reappointed to the Post Office’s roster last year, or Carat, which handles the brand’s media planning and buying.