Lowe scoops $10m Lotto win

By PAUL PANCKHURST AND IRENE CHAPPLE

The New Zealand Lotteries Commission yesterday consigned a 17-year relationship with Saatchi & Saatchi to the dustbin of history.

The country's sixth-largest advertising account - worth more than $10 million in billings - went to ad agency Lowe New Zealand and independent media company Spark Media.

In a year of advertising reshuffles, this was one of the biggest and extended the gap between the one-time glamour agency Saatchi and Auckland-based agency Colenso BBDO.

Last month the Farmers account, worth more than $20 million, shifted from Singleton Ogilvey & Mather to Colenso BBDO's retail arm Colenso .99.

The Farmers and Lotto shifts have put a buffer of more than $20 million in billings between Colenso and Saatchi, which last year both sat around $100 million.

Lowe's chief executive, Stephen Pearson, would not talk billings but the agency now holds two of New Zealand's most coveted accounts - Lotto and Vodafone.

"We're euphoric, it's huge for us," said Pearson. He promised a "significant change" in the advertising, with the first new ads expected around August.

Lotteries chief executive Trevor Hall said the pitch had been "a long and gruelling process for all involved". It was a case of the new clearing out the old.

Hall has been with the agency for 14 months, and marketing head Evan Lawrey for 18 months.

The commission, with its big Lotto and Instant Kiwi brands, was a cornerstone client of Saatchi.

Saatchi chief executive Andrew Stone said the agency was "pretty philosophical" about the loss.

The commission had partly compensated the firm for the cost of the pitch - likely to have exceeded $25,000 - and "we've no beef about anything", he said.

It had been an "amazing relationship" which the agency was proud of.

A string of award-winning commercials included one for Instant Kiwi starring a bungy-jumping trout fisherman.

The shift came despite the commission's fortunes seeming to have already turned, with $620 million to $630 million in revenue expected for the year to June 30 compared with $539 million last year.