TBWA roars to success in Edinburgh zoo pitch
Edinburgh Zoo has appointed TBWA\Edinburgh as its first retained advertising agency in five years.
The agency was selected following a pitch against rival Scottish agencies The Union, The Bridge, The Leith Agency and Newhaven, although the latter is to receive project work from the Zoo following an especially strong presentation. 1576 is understood to have declined to pitch.
Edinburgh Zoo’s last retained advertising agency was Marr Associates, who held the account until budgets were cut in 2000 following the Foot and Mouth crisis. Since then Tayburn has worked with the zoo on a project basis, creating a number of bus-side executions as well as, last year, a television advert.
Though the budget is not believed to be large, the Edinburgh Zoo account is considered to be a desirable creative account. Edinburgh Zoo marketing and communications manager, Lara Hegarty, commented: “We are delighted to appoint TBWA\Edinburgh as our advertising agency for the coming year. As one of Scotland’s most successful visitor attractions we were on the hunt for an agency who would inject fresh vigour into our campaigns. After five extremely high level pitches from Scotland’s top agencies, we believe that TBWA\Edinburgh ticked all the boxes and showed a genuine enthusiasm for Edinburgh Zoo – we look forward to producing some very exciting work with them.”
Gary O’Donnell, managing director of TBWA\Edinburgh, added: “Edinburgh Zoo is just one of those advertising accounts that every agency would love to have on their client list. It’s a great win for us and particularly against such stiff creative competition.”