The Red Brick Road pulls out of £110 million Tesco pitch

By Ian Darby, campaignlive.co.uk, Friday, 27 April 2012 10:11AM

Tesco's agency The Red Brick Road has pulled out of the pitch for its £110 million advertising account.

Tesco: ad review

The agency said that it has resigned the account in order to focus on "other clients and new business opportunities".

Tesco was a founding client of the independent agency, which launched in 2005, but earlier this month called a pitch for its brand advertising in a bid to reinvigorate its fortunes.

It is using the intermediary Oystercatchers to build a shortlist of agencies ahead of a pitch for the account.

The supermarket’s business accounts for roughly two-thirds of The Red Brick Road’s billings. Its other clients include Magners and Suzuki.

Last week, Paul Weinberger, the creative partner at the agency, resigned. He has worked on the Tesco business for 22 years at The Red Brick Road and, before that, Lowe London.

The Red Brick Road confirmed this morning that it won’t take part in the review process and has resigned the whole Tesco account, inclduing Tesco.com, Tesco Bank and its telecoms business. 

Paul Hammersley, the agency’s partner, said: "The time has come for us to take control of our destiny and focus on building a strong, integrated and independent agency. As Tesco was our founding client and some of our people have worked with them for decades, this was a very difficult decision, but we are certain that it is the right one. We wish all the people at Tesco with whom we have worked so closely for so long all the very best."

The agency’s remaining clients are Suzuki, Magners, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Experian, First Drinks (Glenfiddich, Remy Martin), Brewin Dolphin, ATOC, Intersnack, Thinkbox and Savills.

This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk