by Herman Manson (@marklives) Agency House of Brave (HOB) has resigned the Ocean Basket account. The seafood restaurant was a founding client of the agency.
No staff members are affected by the move, although revenue will be impacted. The agency recently picked up two new pieces of business around the time it decided to part ways with Ocean Basket, namely Ascendis Health and Edward Snell.
According to Rob van Rooyen, executive director of strategy, the agency had always felt as if it made a real difference to the Ocean Basket brand and that the brand’s leadership had traditionally trusted the agency and involved it in numerous aspects of the business beyond communications, including product development; however, this changed recently. He says agencies need to start believing in the value they add to clients and in the services they sell — he hopes more agencies will interrogate their relationships with clients where that no longer feels like it is the case.
Confusion in the market
Ocean Basket had been reducing its external marketing budget, moving work in-house, says Van Rooyen. This had lead to confusion in the market about who had done what work, and had cost HOB business in the past.
MarkLives attempted to contact Ocean Basket but the only person able to comment on the story was on leave. We will publish the response, should one be forthcoming.
Herman Manson (@marklives) is the founder and editor of MarkLives.com.
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