After 11 years with Big Red, the airline commenced its first ever creative agency review in October last year. That pitch has just been won by J. Walter Thompson Melbourne, which is now Jetstar’s Australian creative agency partner.

“We met with a number of agencies who all demonstrated different strengths and capabilities, but in JWT we saw an opportunity to simultaneously stretch the brand, whilst building on our very strong foundations.  It was a rigorous process and JWT challenged us, and themselves, every step of the way,” commented Jetstar chief commercial officer, Catriona Larritt.

“We would also like to thank Ted, Hugh and the team at Big Red who have supported us through this process and for the past 11 years.”

The win caps a solid year for J. Walter Thompson Melbourne that gained a number of high profile clients and more than doubled in size. New talent lured included Kieran Antill as executive creative director, Annie Price as creative director and Simon McCrudden as head of planning. The agency also boosted its retail capabilities in Melbourne with a dedicated studio and new head, Andrew Egan, to accommodate major clients Chemmart Pharmacies, Drummond Golf, RadioRentals and Harris Scarfe

Michael Godwin, managing director, J. Walter Thompson Melbourne commented on Jetstar, “We’re thrilled to be Jetstar’s new lead creative agency and enjoyed what was an extremely well managed pitch process.

“Jetstar is a brand that exists to help make the world more accessible to more people, every day. What a wonderful platform to build inspiring, motivating communications upon. We can’t wait to start doing so.

“Thanks to a period of significant transformation and investment, we offer one of the best-qualified retail teams in the country, supported by an unrivalled end-to-end in-house production capability. We look forward to leveraging this to deliver effective communications for Jetstar with great speed and cost efficiency.”

John Gutteridge, J. Walter Thompson chief executive officer Australia/New Zealand added, “By any measure, whether it be the quality of our creative output, or record YOY growth, 2015 was a year like no other for J. Walter Thompson in Australia. Welcoming Jetstar to our Melbourne office client roster will certainly help continue this positive momentum into the year ahead.”