Creative and media planning duties for online brokerage Datek's $55 million account are expected to shift from Bozell to Ogilvy & Mather within the next month, sources said. Ogilvy handles the $60 million ad account of Ameritrade, the discount brokerage that is buying Datek in an all-stock transaction valued at $1.3 billion.
In a bittersweet twist, Bozell last week won a silver Lion at the Cannes ad festival for its Datek print work that shows alternative uses for the stock page.
A Datek representative confirmed that the company would sever ties with Bozell this summer, but referred further inquiries to Ameritrade.
"We are very proud of the work we have done for Datek," said Bozell president and CEO Tom Bernardin. "The campaign's success, in both the marketplace and at Cannes, are representative of the new Bozell. It appears that cor porate developments at the client may preclude us from continuing this relationship."
Sources said layoffs at Bozell could happen as early as this week as a result of the account shift.
Ogilvy has split the Ameritrade account between its Chicago and New York offices for the last five years, but sources said the latter will now take the lead as the business grows. An Ogilvy representative referred calls to the client, which declined comment.
It is likely that the Datek name will disappear once the merger is complete, sources said, adding that Ameritrade marketing executives, including chief marketing officer Anne Nelson, are steering the new branding efforts.
The latest Ameritrade ads from Ogilvy in Chicago, which target customers with varied investment styles, feature a bull and a bear joking about the stock market.
Ameritrade has 1.8 million accounts that execute 86,000 trades a day; Datek has 837,000 accounts that execute 78,000 trades a day. The merger, which is expected to be finalized by the end of the summer, will catapult Omaha, Neb.-based Ameritrade to No. 1 in terms of equity trades per day.