Sun Life Financial has named Draftfcb Canada as its Agency of Record to support the company’s advertising, branding and marketing initiatives, taking over from former AOR, Capital C.

Paul Williams, business director, Draftfcb, says the Toronto-based agency learned they won the closed-bid competition last month. He believes his agency’s experience in the financial services sector (Draftfcb was the AOR for TD Canada Trust for 13 years) played an important role in winning the account. He also says the agency’s international connections, as well as synergy between its Toronto and Montreal offices, were key factors.

“They were looking for an agency with extensive experience in the FI category,” Williams says, noting that Sun Life is one of the agency’s top five accounts. “I think that being an international company, and us being part of the Interpublic Group, that was something that was of interest to them as well.”

“We have a very strong presence in our Montreal office and we actually met with the Sun Life client in Montreal,” he adds. “Seeing the way we integrate on national accounts with our Montreal folks was a key factor as well.”

Draftfcb and Sun Life will begin work on an upcoming national advertising campaign slated to launch later this year.

While Williams says Draftfcb has only met with Sun Life a few times since winning the account, he says the agency will be assessing whether to hire more staff in the coming months.

“It’s a very nice piece of business for us,” he says. “I think there is going to be a lot of work outside of the national advertising campaign.”