Following a review, ING Direct has named John St. as its AOR. The agency’s responsibilities will include strategic counsel and advertising across media channels.

Andrew Zimakas, VP marketing, ING Direct says the company, who was with GWP prior to the review, looked at a long list of 15 agencies and went in-depth with four before deciding on John St.

“They bring strategic insight, capabilities and phenomenal go to market creative,” he says. “They bring to bear what is really important right now to us given where we are at in the life cycle of the brand. We launched 15 years ago and need to evolve the brand to become more important in people’s everyday lives. We want to take an approach of waking up Canadians with respect to their finances and banking products.”

New advertising from the deal will likely not be in the market until 2012, according to a release.