Bear Meets Eagle on Fire Wins Bankwest

Bear Meets Eagle On Fire, the indie hot shop at the centre of Telstra's +61 agency with TBWA and OMD, has won Bankwest.

The Western Australian-based brand was previously serviced by a bespoke agency run out of WPP and essenceMediacom called Union, set up in 2018. For the duration of the partnership, Union has iterated on the 'Bank Less' platform it introduced six years ago, which has featured a distinct array of animated characters.

Bear Meets Eagle on Fire has been tasked with creating and launching a new brand platform and vision for the brand.

GM of customer, marketing, and communications Jodene Murphy said the appointment reflects Bankwest's ambition to be "Australia's favourite digital bank."

"We're really looking forward to telling our story in a way that's as distinctive and engaging as the digital banking innovations we're creating for our current and future customers across Australia," she said.

Bear Meets Eagle on Fire founder Micah Walker added, "When you find partners who are as decent and funny as human beings as they are ambitious about their brand, you have a chance.

"So we're genuinely excited about the future with the Bankwest team."

The Commonwealth Bank subsidiary, based in Perth, last launched work via Union at the start of 2023. The home ownership campaign, 'We've got you', was in Bankwest's usual animated style. In September 2020, Union and Landor refreshed the brand design for the first time in 20 years.

Bankwest said it would continue to work with other agency partners alongside Bear Meets Eagle on Fire.

Bear's appointment continues a trend of large brands looking to indies, such as Honda appointing Howatson+Co as its external media and creative agency to work alongside a freshly-built in-house agency.

Over the past four years, the local indie market has flooded with new entrants, including Howatson, Today the Brave, It's Friday, Supermassive, REUNION, Bureau of Everything, Rick Barry, Bullfrog, The Ministry for Communications and the Arts, Pembleton, and jnr.

The Micah Walker-fronted Bear Meets Eagle on Fire rose to fame when then-IAG CMO Brent Smart asked it to launch new brand ROLLiN'. From there, the studio's 'Until Then' work for NRMA attracted awards and acclaim. When Brent moved to Telstra and pitched the account, +61 was built around Bear Meets Eagle on Fire, with TBWA and OMD giving it the necessary scale and structure to service the largest account in the country (totalling media and creative).

Since the appointment, Bear Meets Eagle on Fire has led the creative for the series of stop motion spots, the 'From Space to Your Place' and 'Four Bars' out-of-home work, and the ambitious new brand platform, 'Wherever We Go.' Brent has called the agency "the best creative agency in the country" for its devotion to craft; the platform launched with a detailed animated film and papercraft-led OOH. The Bear team created almost 300 assets to ensure the shadows and lighting suited each OOH site, and the campaign featured 40 special OOH builds.

Following the success of the Telstra work, incoming Omnicom Advertising Group global boss and current global CEO at TBWA\Worldwide Troy Ruhanen told LBB he was directly replicating the +61 model in an active pitch.

Bear Meets Eagle on Fire and Bankwest were contacted for comment.