Lowe day, Bates loses HSBC AOR

Lowe Lintas & Partners is systematically dismantling Bates Worldwide's grip on the global HSBC account, luring away the bank's product services business from the network's Red Hong Kong division. The win, which threatens Bates' 40-year relationship with the banking giant, effectively splits HSBC's product services business between the two agencies. As well as HSBC's global branding campaign, Lowe Lintas will now handle premier services, e-initiatives, consumer assets and investment products in addition to HSBC's IBM division. Lowe Lintas will also serve as the bank's agency of record on regional corporate projects and payment and cash management services, bringing in more than HKdollars 100 million (about USdollars 12.8 million) in capitalised billings. Lowe Lintas managing director Stephen Li said the agency was working towards winning other HSBC regional accounts. "This is part of HSBC's global alignment since the bank changed its name in March 1999. HSBC has been looking for a global agency of record, and rather than (put the account to pitch), it gave us two test projects allowing it to compare us with Bates," he said. One project involved a campaign for its personal installment loan service. "The bank had not advertised this service for a year and when the campaign was launched, HSBC met its business target for the entire year within the first eight days of the launch," Mr Li said. He added the bank had based its decision to divide the business between the agencies based on Lowe Lintas' performance and ability to "truly understand the bank's business". However, Bates CEO Jeffrey Yu said the move to use two agencies "had been HSBC's plan right from the start". "The bank has always had a policy of using two agencies so there is no element of surprise ... It is based on HSBC's global expansion," Mr Yu insisted. With the win, Lowe Lintas will take on an extra 25 staff and office space. "This is a crucial time for us to prove ourselves and I think we are ready to challenge the big boys," Mr Li added. A year after Lowe and Ammirati Puris Lintas merged to form Lowe Lintas, the network took home Campaign's Agency of the Year award for 2000 in the UK and Europe.

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