Allied Bank hands media task to BLM

Allied Irish Bank has appointed Booth Lockett Makin to handle its media account.

The business was handed to BLM without a formal pitch. It was previously handled by Carat.

The majority of the media spend will be on national and specialist press. However, BLM will also look at the possibility of producing sponsored business guides on behalf of the bank. BLM begins work on the account in April.

Allied’s head of business marketing John Kilty says: “It was the strength of BLM’s strategy that persuaded us it was suitable for the task.”

BLM managing partner Charlie Makin adds: “Our primary role will be to generate response, and we are looking at a fairly radical option beyond the scope of conventional direct response media.”

In February, Allied became the first Irish company to report annual profits over 1bn, at 1.05bn. Since then the bank has been at the centre of takeover speculation.