HFC hands Motive £5m media task for new card

HFC has appointed Motive as its media agency for a £5m credit card launch this autumn.

The win came after a secret pitch, which is thought to have involved at least two other agencies, and a week after news that HFC had appointed Mother as the creative agency for the card.

Motive will have had to negotiate its way around a conflict with competitor NatWest Bank to win the account. Motive handles all services for NatWest, including card services and special financial products.

HFC is a joint backer of the Goldfish card with Centrica. The new card is thought to be more upmarket than the existing card, however, few details are available about the product.

A spokesman for HFC says: “Our policy is to develop card programmes that take market share from the high street banks who, in the vast majority of cases, are still charging annual fees for their cards.”

Motive’s win does not affect HFC’s business with The Media Shop, which handles the bank’s affinity cards and personal loans account.

US bank HFC has a 5.3 per cent share of the UK credit card market, according to Datamonitor.