Industry Super Australia to pitch $40m media account, Mitchells to compete with Carat
The umbrella body for many of Australia’s largest superannuation funds Industry Super Australia (ISA) is in the process of pitching its media account, Mumbrella can reveal.
The lucrative account, which advertises on behalf of more than 15 different superannuation funds including CBus, Australian Super, HESTA and First Super is tipped to be worth between $30m and $40m.
ISA’s media pitch is the latest major media account up for grabs with incumbent Mitchell & Partners believed to be contest against a shortlist that includes sister Dentsu Aegis Media agency Carat, along with Mediabrand’s Initiative, Omincom’s OMD and Publicis’ ZenithOptimedia.
Several of the large agencies are already battling it out for the $240m Woolworths business currently held by Carat, while last week Lion announced a pitch for its alcohol brands putting ZenithOptimedia on alert, as several still sweat on the results of the Federal Government tender process which started before Christmas.
According to Nielsen, ISA spent $9m in the Jan-Dec 2013 period but the individual super funds under this group have reported an additional $28.6m in advertising for that same period.
Aegis declined to comment on which agencies would be involved in the pitch, but sources have told Mumbrella incumbent Mitchells will contest the account, with its sister agency Carat also lining up to defend the account on behalf of the group.
ISA confirmed the pitch and said it was being run by consultancy TrinityP3.
Updated: An earlier version of this story said Mitchells was not going to compete for the business. However, sources have confirmed the agency will be involved in the pitch.
Nic Christensen
Make’s me feel all warm and fuzzy that my super fund is throwing $40m up against the wall each year rather than investing that money to see that I get a better return.
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Could be worse, they could be performing like a retail fund.
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planet earth to anonymous, Mumbrella is all about media, advertising and marketing, without clients spending money Mumbrella wouldn’t exist and 99% of the people on the site would be looking for a different job.
I don’t think there should be an issue with super funds spending money on marketing/media as long as its being used effectively to help grow their business.
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I’ll go one step further to say it makes me warm and fuzzy knowing a $40m Gov account will likely be won on which agency schmoozes the client the most…
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It’s worth noting that Carat currently have Auatralian Super with the rest ISF business with Mitchell’s.
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