Bates A-P assigned major role in SIA advertising account

Batey Group's 28-year hold on the prestigious Singapore International Airlines account has come to an end after a significant piece of the business was handed to Bates. Under the new arrangement, Batey will continue to handle the brand part of the account; however, Bates will be in charge of all consumer promotion-based advertising, according to sources. One said that this essentially meant that Bates would "work on campaigns to promote new routes, services and facilities - anything not related to the 'Singapore Girl' icon". It is estimated that the SIA advertising account is now split almost equally between the two agencies. SIA began intensively looking for a new agency early last year because "it didn't want to leave all its eggs in one basket while major changes were taking place around it", a source said. Speculation that Mr Ian Batey - who founded Batey Advertising and created the now world-famous Singapore Girl icon - would soon retire as head of Batey Group was the impetus behind SIA beginning the search process. But although this is not likely to happen any time soon, Mr Batey has announced that he has relinquished the day-to-day running of the group to a "second generation" of leaders. However, he will remain on board at the agency as chairman, overseeing macro issues and major accounts, such as SIA. By last May, the airline - consistently described as one of the most admired brands in the world - settled on Bates to handle its e-booking account. The word at the time was that if Bates did well, it would be rewarded with more of the business. However, the appointment of Bates as SIA's second agency was not the only change in recent times. Last month, it appointed CIA as its global media agency, replacing previous incumbent Maximize and its network of WPP affiliates worldwide. Batey Group is also part of the WPP network; however, it is unlikely that SIA is deliberately moving away from WPP. "Bates is part of Cordiant and CIA is a Tempus Group company. It seems that SIA is looking as far afield as possible to get the best possible deal," a source said.

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