Eight advertising agencies share Executive roster as media moves
The Scottish Executive has appointed eight creative agencies to its roster, following its wide-ranging statutory review last month.
Industry sources have indicated that both The Union and Barkers, the Executive’s existing roster agencies, have been retained with six others, thought to be The Bridge, 1576, Citigate Smarts, Family, Leith and Newhaven, with The Leith and Newhaven being the only two agencies completely new to the roster.
Previously, The Union and Barkers worked on the Executive’s creative account, 1576 on the VisitScotland brand, The Bridge with the health education department, NHS Health Scotland, Family with Scottish Enterprise and Citigate Smarts on the See Me campaign.
Ten agencies were known to have made it through to the final pitching stage from the hundreds of applicants, with Framec and TBWA thought to be the unlucky agencies.
As The Drum went to press, Roger Williams, head of communications at the Scottish Executive, would neither confirm nor deny the reports, and nor would any of the agencies.
Meanwhile, although again unconfirmed by the Executive or agencies, it is understood that the Scottish Executive has announced, in somewhat of a shock decision, that it has appointed Mediacom as its sole media buyer for the government agencies. Incumbent agency Feather Brooksbank had been the odds-on favourite to retain the account and the decision has caused much surprise within the Scottish media scene.
An industry insider commented: “This will have a huge effect on the media market in Scotland and I think will have a severe impact on some of the larger agencies. Only time will tell how this will change the media landscape in Scotland.”
Meanwhile Citigate Smarts, Consolidated Communications, The Big Partnership and Barkers all make up the PR roster.
The new media roster is thought to consist of Civic Computing, Revolver, Storm ID and Whitespace. An official announcement on all appointments from the Scottish Executive is due to be made next week.