Allianz Worldwide Care seeks new UK marketing partner

Leading insurer Allianz Worldwide Care has commenced a search for a new UK advertising agency to handle its health brand.

The firm has made direct approaches to a number of media agencies via its Dublin headquarters, with the aim of making an appointment at some point before the end of the year, reports Campaign Live.

Currently, the majority of Allianz's global advertising is handled by Grey, which won the brief in 2009 in a 60 million pound deal after fending off competition from DDB Berlin, Young and Rubicam, and previous account-holder BBDO.

It subsequently launched a dedicated global division called Team Allianz@Grey to handle the account, in partnership with MediaCom, its sister agency under the WPP group umbrella.

The insurer's health brand competes with companies such as Bupa and Axa PPP Healthcare and ran its most prominent advertising campaign to date – which used the tagline of "the world's strongest financial community" – back in 2010.