PHD Canada has been named media AOR for Scotiabank after a competitive review.
The assignment includes strategic planning and media planning and buying for all of Scotiabank’s Canadian products and services. The account will transition to PHD from Carat Canada—which had held the account since 2002—over the next 60 days.
Toronto-based PHD was one of three media agencies invited to pitch the Scotiabank account, along with Carat and an undisclosed agency. The review began in mid-November, with final presentations taking place in late December.
Rick White, vice-president of marketing for Scotiabank, said he was “very, very impressed” with PHD’s presentation.
“We have a pretty complex approach in the marketplace: mass advertising, our online materials, our Scene program and a huge sponsorship portfolio,” said White. “What we wanted was a company that would challenge us as to the type of approach we should be taking and provide some new insights and innovative thinking.”
White said Scotiabank will continue to pursue the sponsorship strategy it embarked upon three years ago, which has grown to include partnerships with sports leagues and associations like the NHL, CFL and Cricket Canada; cultural events such as Scotiabank Nuit Blanche and Scotiabank Caribana; and other events such as the Scotiabank Giller Prize. White said that its Scene reward program with theatre chain Cineplex has been a “tremendous success” that has given Scotiabank access to the youth community.
“It’s a strong portfolio,” he said. “We still see some gaps in it, but we feel we’re getting great response from our customers and the public.”
PHD Canada president and CEO Fred Forster said the agency will work to make Scotiabank stand out in the highly competitive financial services category. “It’s a great category to be associated with from a media perspective, because there are a lot of different products and services,” said Forster. “[The financial sector] tends to be fairly commoditized. They all offer a lot of the same things, so I think there’s a real opportunity for differentiation just in terms of using media in smart and different ways.”
Scotiabank is the latest in a string of account wins for PHD, part of the Omnicom Media Group, dating back to last year. Earlier this week, it announced it had won the Via Rail account, which will be serviced out of its Montreal office, Touché PHD.
“We had a great relationship with Carat and they did a great job,” said White when asked why Scotiabank opted to put its account into review. Carat “helped us truly build our brand over that period… but we were looking for some new ideas and some new approaches.”
In an unrelated review that also concluded in December, PHD was also awarded the Scotiabank International assignment for the Caribbean and Latin America regions. The account will be jointly serviced by PHD Canada and PHD offices in those regions.
Scotiabank spent $18.4 million on measured media advertising in 2007 according to The Nielsen Company.
