BBH ‘staffs up for Clubcard business’

Tesco ad agency BBH is understood to be hiring staff in preparation for the switch-over of a major chunk of Clubcard business from the supermarket giant’s long-standing DM agency, Havas Helia.
According to insiders, the joint venture with Seven Seconds – set up by Simon Hall and Warren Moore to handle British Airways’ CRM account – is embarking on a recruitment drive to handle Clubcard activity.
A spokesman for Tesco refused to confirm or deny the move, simply saying: “BBH has spent the past few months bedding down the advertising account, but we would not normally release details about whether it is also handling Clubcard loyalty work.”
Speculation has been rife ever since BBH was first handed the advertising and CRM brief without a pitch in January. As DecisionMarketing predicted at the time, the appointment would have sparked “squeaky bum time” for Helia bosses.
The agency’s relationship with Tesco dates back nearly 20 years to the mid-Nineties, when Tesco director of targeted marketing Grant Harrison appointed the company – then known as Evans Hunt Scott – to handle the nascent Clubcard account, along with DunnHumby.
Whether Tesco will sever all ties with Helia is another matter, however. While the agency has allegedly been losing money on the Clubcard business for years, it is also a prestigious account which opens the door to other loyalty clients.
Sources suggest the supermarket could retain its data assets within Helia, but hand BBH most of the Clubcard marketing activity.
No-one at BBH or Helia was available for comment as DecisionMarketing went to press.

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