Deloitte appoints WPP agencies to raise UK awareness

The WPP companies initially selected have been tasked with raising brand awareness and understanding of the services Deloitte offers in the UK. In all, the WPP companies will provide Deloitte with advertising, public relations and graduate recruitment marketing services.

The team of agencies will initially comprise: Enterprise IG for branding and identity; Cohn & Wolfe for public relations; Sharpen Troughton Owens Response, formerly Red Cell Response, for advertising and direct marketing; and JWT Specialist Communications for graduate recruitment.

Although there was no formal pitch for the account, Enterprise IG had previously worked for Deloitte on the last rebranding effort two years ago and JWT did compete for the recruitment ad portion of the business.

Nick Owen, managing partner of marketing and business development at Deloitte, said: "Deloitte has greater breadth and depth than any other single firm in the UK and it is our intention that these appointments will strengthen awareness of this message. 

"Each of the appointed WPP companies has a strong track record of working in a collaborative way and going forward will deliver creative campaigns that reflect Deloitte's world-class services and people."

It is the first major advertising or branding activity Deloitte has done for a number of years. It had previously worked with Ogilvy & Mather in the US and Hill & Knowlton on crisis management.

Three years ago its consulting arm, Deloitte Consulting, embarked on a $60m global campaign to rebrand itself as Braxton, working with Omnicom agencies DDB and OMD, with Interbrand.

At the same time fellow advisory firm Arthur Andersen integrated into Deloitte and dropped the Andersen brand name.

The merger with Arthur Andersen came on the back of the accountancy giant being tarnished by the Enron scandal, which saw it lose major clients including WPP.

Mark Read, strategy director at WPP, said: "The agreement will ensure a more focused and strategic approach to developing truly integrated campaigns for Deloitte. This will be achieved through maximising the effectiveness of the marketing mix, greater cost efficiency and a rigorously consistent implementation on the projection of this powerful brand into new and existing markets."

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This article was first published on brandrepublic.com