SingTel awards creative, digital account to Ogilvy & Mather

The incumbents were BBDO Singapore and OgilvyOne. Ogilvy Public Relations is one of the brand's PR agencies.

“Ogilvy has proven their thought-leadership and creative effectiveness over the last few years," Yuen Kuan Moon, SingTel’s CEO, consumer Singapore, said in a statement. "With such a performance on record, we are confident they are up to the significant task of building SingTel’s brand equity.”

SingTel called the pitch in June, saying that it was looking for “a more integrated creative and digital agency model” and planned to appoint one agency for both creative and digital duties. The tender added that there was also “the potential possibility of outsourcing production to a production specialist”.

Subsequently, industry rumours said that SingTel was looking for a change from incumbent agency BBDO Singapore, as the five-year relationship between SingTel and the agency had deteriorated. One month later, BBDO Singapore announced that it had pulled out from the agency review. According to sources, the move made redundant around 10 creatives and five account managers.

A shortlist with JWT, Ogilvy, TBWA and Leo Burnett was then established in August. The final presentation took place in mid September.

SingTel appointed consultancy firm R3 to handle the review process.

BBDO Singapore's appointment by SingTel in 2008 also came after drama: The agency got back into contention after two other agencies pulled out.