Skipton travels to Red Brick Road for business revamp

Skipton Building Society has appointed Red Brick Road as its lead agency with a brief that covers creative through to data, CRM and social media as the finance firm continues its revamp under new chief executive Stuart Haire.

The appointment, which follows a three-way competitive pitch process, brings the curtain down on Jaywing’s eight-year relationship with the company.

It will see Red Brick Road provide holistic brand strategy and a new creative brand platform to relaunch the organisation’s drive to help more people have a home, save for life ahead, and to support financial wellbeing.

With more than 1 million members and 82 branches, Skipton is one of the UK’s largest building societies and part of the Skipton Group, which includes Connells, the UK’s largest estate agency and property services provider, Skipton Business Finance, Skipton International and Jade Software Corporation.

The company has strong roots in the data-driven marketing industry, having been the original backer of Callcredit (now TransUnion); Leeds based Jaywing has handled the brand’s marketing account since 2014. In 2020, it was also appointed to its independent credit risk validation business. It is not known whether this work will continue.

Since the start of 2023, Skipton Building Society has undergone significant change under new Haire, who was previously CEO for HSBC’s personal and private banking, covering HSBC UK, First Direct, M&S Bank and John Lewis Financial Services. He also sat on the M&S Bank Board.

Over the past 15 months, it has created two distinctive units to focus on home (mortgage) and money (savings and financial advice) businesses.

Initially, Red Brick Road will concentrate on an integrated brand relaunch and work to help to elevate a brand new membership proposition made up of a series of initiatives designed to help members get more from their money and being part of the society.

Skipton Group chief marketing officer Nick Mortimer, who joined in April last year after working at Yorkshire Building Society, Co-op and London & Country Mortgages, said: “From the outset, Red Brick Road impressed us with their thorough understanding of our complex business, and they share our vision of the purposeful role we want to play in our members lives. Their breadth of expertise is compelling. We’re delighted to be partnering with them.”

Red Brick Road chief executive David Miller added: “As soon as we met the Skipton team it felt right – we’ve got big, shared ambitions for the brand and we can’t wait to use our creativity to relaunch their extraordinary products and services.”

The agency’s client list also includes Amazon, L’Oréal, Tesco, Post Office, Soreen, Ginsters, Beano, Experian, Yorkshire Buliding Society and Peckish.