Vodafone has hung up on advertising agency Lowe after nine years, in the second blow for the firm in a month.
Vodafone yesterday confirmed what everybody in the ad industry had already guessed - it is reviewing its advertising arrangements and they do not include Lowe.
The fastgrowing telco has cut its shortlist down to two contenders - one a combination of Colenso BBDO and its retail arm Colenso.99, and the other a combination of JWT Advertising, which holds the Vodafone business in most foreign markets, and Ogilvy.
The choices reflect a shift in Vodafone's marketing strategy from promoting the overall brand to promoting specific products and deals.
Lowe - whose New Zealand managing director Cameron Harland resigned just before the decision - has indicated "at least" 10-12 job losses.
These follow cuts earlier this month when Lowe gave up trying to hold on to the Lotteries Commission account.
Stephen Pearson - the Lowe Australasia chief executive who recently moved to Sydney - insisted that the New Zealand Lowe agency would continue.
But the loss of the big telco account - worth several million - raises questions about the long-term future for the agency, which is now a small player in a small market.
Harland declined to talk about the future of Lowe, which no longer has a major local account, but said the New Zealand advertising industry was tough and he expected more mergers in the future.
Lowe is a global advertising brand and part of the Interpublic Group which has been going through major upheavals internationally.
Interpublic merged its ailing agency, McCann Erickson, with its most successful agency, FCB, last year.
FCB New Zealand boss Brian Crawford said there had been no prospects of FCB merging with Lowe.
Vodafone spokesman Paul Brislen said that the change affected work by Lowe and not the direct marketing by its Draft division.
It also did not affect media buying which was through another agency, he added.
