ING trawls agencies for global ad drive

ING, the Dutch financial services giant, is seeking a London agency to spearhead a global ad campaign aimed at raising its corporate brand.

The brief is linked to ING’s title sponsorship of the Renault Formula One team, which it uses to push its corporate brand to consumers.

German agency Kemper Trautmann, which created ING’s inaugural global F1 campaign this season, has not been invited to pitch.

ING Group has longlisted 12 London agencies with a view to appointing one sooner rather than later. The shortlisted agencies will be briefed later this month.

Gabor Dani, marketing and advertising manager for the ING Renault F1 sponsorship, is overseeing the review. He says: “We really want to create an unconventional corporate campaign without all the clichés.”

The work will break in March next year ahead of the first Grand Prix race of the season. Its most recent campaign ran in 25 countries aimed at sports viewers and a mass retail audience, as well as some work across multi-territory business-to-business channels including BBC Worldwide and CNN.

It also ran in print and online, positioning ING as a top-tier global company in banking, insurance and asset management. The objective of the first campaign was to raise the profile and awareness of ING globally.

The new work will be expected to build on this brief.

The review does not affect Vallance Carruthers Coleman Priest, which handles advertising for ING Direct, the UK-based internet brand.

F1 reaches almost 50 million viewers globally, with 17 races broadcast across the season. ING confirmed a three-season deal with Renault in October last year. It followed the departure of tobacco brand Mild Seven, which left the sport after 13 seasons of sponsoring Benetton and Renault teams.