Citi names Publicis to global brand identity and consumer ad accounts

Global - Financial services giant Citi has awarded its global corporate brand identity and global consumer group (GCG) advertising campaign accounts to Publicis.

While it was reported in Marketing's September 20 2006 bulletin that Publicis and sister Publicis Groupe agency Fallon work on a ‘Publicis powered by Fallon' model, which refers to the Fallon's worldwide creative leadership role on the Citibank account while Publicis acts as the worldwide delivery agency due to its larger footprint, the latest announcement points to Publicis' growing creative responsibilities on the Citibank account. 

"That certainly is the case worldwide that Publicis now leads creative on the account, but here in Singapore and Hong Kong, Publicis and Fallon are and have already been working together sometime now. There's no separating how we work together and we can't move the Citibank business because the business is already integrated. The main change is worldwide," Matthew Godfrey, COO of Publicis Asia Pacific said.

"As we considered how best to support our marketing initiatives, beginning with our corporate brand identity campaign, we looked for a company with extraordinary domestic and international capabilities," Lisa Caputo, chief marketing and community relations officer, GCG said.

"We have been impressed by Publicis' ability to customise and execute advertising programs across diverse geographies and cultures. Over the past seven years we have enjoyed many successes working with Fallon, a Publicis Groupe company, on our consumer advertising campaigns, and Fallon will continue to provide support in select international markets. Publicis will help propel our Citi brand identity messaging and deliver strategic advertising support for our financial products and services," Caputo said.

Publicis' new brand identity ad campaign for Citi will be rolled out in May, with the themes from that campaign to be integrated into Citi's advertising and marketing programs for its GCG products and services.

Last year, Fallon Singapore president and CD Calvin Soh took on an additional role within Publicis as regional CD, where he was tasked to work with regional Publicis offices in countries such as India, Australia, Indonesia, and Thailand to supervise regional creative work for Citibank, following the two agencies' joint worldwide business win of the account.