Lloyds Banking Group, the UK’s largest retail bank, has appointed Zenith as its official media agency following a tender involving incumbent operator MediaCom.
Zenith, part of Publicis Groupe, will handle media planning and buying for all Lloyds Banking Group brands, including Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Scottish Widows and MBNA.
Lloyds Banking Group has praised Zenith’s “media, digital and data capabilities”, and it is believed the agency has relied on Epsilon, Publicis Groupe’s data business, as part of its offering.
Publicis Sapient, the digital transformation and consulting arm of Publicis Groupe, already has a long-standing relationship with Lloyds Banking Group, but it is understood that this had no influence on the media pitch, which was a statutory review of three years.
Lloyds Banking Group invests around £80m a year in media. The company spent a total of £187m on advertising and promotion in 2020, up 10% on the £170m on advertising and promotion in 2019, according to the annual report.
The decision to transfer the account to Zenith from January 2022 signifies the end of a 12-year media relationship with the M group of WPP, the parent company of MediaCom.
MEC won the account in 2009 during a consolidation following the Lloyds-HBOS merger, before Group M set up Greenhouse, a bespoke media agency for Lloyds Banking Group in 2015, then MediaCom won the client at the following another review in 2018.
Zenith previously managed the Lloyds TSB part of the account before the 2009 consolidation.
Catherine Kehoe, Lloyds Banking Group Client Manager, said: “The media landscape is changing rapidly and brands need the most advanced thinking to communicate effectively and efficiently with audiences.
“We were very impressed with Zenith’s media, digital and data capabilities and look forward to working with them.”
“I would like to thank MediaCom and Group M, with whom we have worked successfully for several years, for their dedication and support. They have been an extremely valuable partner.
Natalie Cummins, UK Managing Director of Zenith, said: “Lloyds Banking Group presented us with an important but simple challenge, namely to navigate a profoundly changing media world. We had a unique approach, proven during the review. »
She added that she was “so happy to work with this brilliant client, who inspired us to do our best”.
Zenith previously managed the estimated £27million media account of rival NatWest Group, owner of the Royal Bank of Scotland, for nearly a decade until earlier this year when Initiative won the business.
Ebiquity advised Lloyds Banking Group on the review and was appointed media auditor from next year.
Countryside first revealed in September that the bank was reviewing the media.
The client disrupted their marketing operations
Lloyds Banking Group has disrupted other parts of its internal and external marketing operations over the past two years by seeking to bring marketing communications closer to the customer experience.
Kehoe was promoted from the position of Group Managing Director of Brands and Marketing to the newly created role of Chief Client Officer in early 2020.
Later that year, Lloyds Banking Group transferred the Halifax advertising account to Adam & Eve/DDB’s New Commercial Arts start-up, which retained the Lloyds brand.
Kehoe said at the time: “The most successful modern brands are defined by an alchemy between strategy, experience and communication.”
Lloyds Banking Group then launched an in-house creative agency called Beehive in 2021 to save money and take a faster, more dynamic approach to customer communications, although the bank stressed that the roles of Adam & Eve/DDB and NCA were unaffected. Havas Helia has been managing the CRM since 2019.
