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