The Week: DLKW on alert as Halifax calls £18m creative ad review

Campaign 25-Apr-08

Halifax has called a review of its £18 million advertising account. The pitch, which is being handled by Agency Assessments, will be held in June, with a brief expected to be sent out to agencies in May. The incumbent, Delaney Lund Knox Warren & Partners, will repitch.

The agency won the account in July 2000, and went on to secure the ad
business for the HBOS-owned bank's online insurance company esure,
before the company moved that portion of the business in-house in 2002.

Since appointing DLKW, the bank has become infamous for its "cast of

characters" campaign, which features staff members singing along to
reworked versions of classic songs.

The first ad saw bank employee Howard Brown singing a version of Sex
Bomb, while the most recent demoted him to a cameo role in favour of the
call-centre worker Thomas Yau.

Media, which is held by Vizeum, is unaffected.

- Live Issue, page 8.