IKEA switch

Less than 12 months after Meerkats snatched the IKEA account from Marketforce, the prized advertising client has switched back to its former agency, 303.

Covering the Western Australian and South Australian markets for the ubiquitous Swedish homewares chain, the account is one of the most sought after in Perth advertising and its move back to 303 caught many by surprise.

Meerkats managing director Gavin Bain said the agency had agreed to part ways “amicably” with IKEA last week.

He said there was a fundamental difference in the way Meerkats and IKEA approached their marketing and it proved to be an impasse.

“We would like to think we are quite an honest agency so we just had a conversation with the client because in the end it would have led to friction,” Mr Bain said.

“And we thought someone else would be a better match and hopefully that is 303.”

IKEA marketing manager Nigel Richardson said the decision to leave Meerkats was evidence of the “very transparent relationship” it enjoyed with the agency.

“Both parties have felt for a while that there exists between our two organisations a fundamental difference in philosophy,” Mr Richardson said.

“We share the same ambitions, greater market share for IKEA in Perth and Adelaide but how we get there is where the difference lies.”

303 held the IKEA account for more than a decade before it moved to Marketforce in late 2008 and then Meerkats in June last year.