Ikea $1.1m shoot-out goes to Lowe Lintas

<p>SINGAPORE: Lowe Lintas & Partners, a dark horse in the Ikea pitch, </p><p>has scooped the S$2 million (US$1.1m) account in a </p><p>four-way shoot-out. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The agency beat BBH, Euro RSCG and J. Walter Thompson. Dentsu Young & </p><p>Rubicam was the incumbent agency, while media buying and planning will </p><p>shift from The Media Edge to Initiative Media. Ikea had initially </p><p>refused to allow Lowe Lintas to pitch as it had drawn up an agency </p><p>shortlist. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>But Addison James, Lowe Lintas chief executive, convinced Angeline Tan, </p><p>Ikea marketing and communications manager, to give his agency a </p><p>shot. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Tan said: "Lowe Lintas was relentless in pursuing this, and it just </p><p>demonstrated to us the passion they had for our brand. They only had two </p><p>weeks to work on their pitch and the fact they came up with such a great </p><p>presentation at such short notice indicates how committed they are to </p><p>working on our account." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Tan described Lowe Lintas as good listeners, "but they're not 'yes' men </p><p>and there's no ego there". </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Ikea gave the participating agencies a brief and asked them to come up </p><p>with creative work and a strategy. As BBH has a policy of steering clear </p><p>of creative pitches, it did a strategic pitch and showed previous work </p><p>to demonstrate its creative capabilities. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>