Abbott Mead Vickers wins £11m Norwich Union account

by Jennifer Whitehead,, Brand Republic 01-Jun-04, 08:30

LONDON - Norwich Union is understood to have appointed Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO to its £11m advertising account after a final two-way pitch.

AMV won the account after going head to head with Fallon in the final stage.

The agency already handles the £7.5m Norwich Union Direct work, for which it created the "Quote me happy" campaign. It now adds life insurance, financial and corporate advertising to its portfolio. The account was previously handled by McCann Erickson London, which dropped out of the running in April.

DDB London was also in the frame for the account, but dropped out in the middle of May.

The company is expected to confirm the appointment today after a review that was handled by Agency Insight and overseen by marketing director Sally Shire.

Shire said: "We are looking forward to working with AMV BBDO following their appointment. We were impressed by their approach to the pitch and believe that this appointment will allow us to move the highly successful Norwich Union brand through the next phase of its advertising development."

There were questions about the review after Fiona Martin, head of brand and advertising, quit the company last month, but Norwich Union insisted that it would go ahead with making an agency appointment.

McCann Erickson won the Norwich Union account in 2000 following its merger with CGU. It was charged with creating a brand campaign to reinforce the Norwich Union name.

More recently, it has created the "trawlerman" ad, which showed a Geordie fisherman talking about his financial portfolio. Other ads in the series included "portrait of an artist" and "yoga".

The media buying, which is handled by Brand Connection, remains unaffected by the appointment.

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