Egg appoints Mother for an image beyond quirky: despite its brand success, egg is keen for a different image. (Live Issue/Egg).(Brief Article)

It's not every online financial banking company that would choose to portray its staff as so over-friendly that they think nothing of climbing into bed with their customers. But ever since its launch in October 1998, Egg has always tried to stand out from the crowd. Under HHCL & Partners' mindful eye, Egg's quirky advertising saw it hatch into a hugely successful online banking company.

Which is why it comes as such a shock that the 16 million [pounds sterling] account should move to Mother, without so much as a pitch.

Egg, after all, has enjoyed substantial success in its history. According to Simon Burridge, the chairman of HHCL & Partners, sales of Egg cards are up 175 per cent since the advertising featuring Daisy Donovan trying to buy a Russian husband with her Egg card broke. Burridge also cites a brand awareness figure of 84 per cent. So if HHCL has done such a good job on Egg, why has the business moved?

"It is no more complicated than Nick Cross," is Burridge's explanation. "People like him come in and are in charge of their global marketing effort and want to do it with their own people."

And while other marketing directors also exhibit the "new broom syndrome", it seems clear that Cross (who was on holiday and unable to comment this week) just wants to work with Mother. Holding a pitch with the outcome already decided would have wasted everyone's time, and Cross' friendship with Mother founder Stef Calcraft goes back to their days at Bartle Bogle Hegarty.

Still, others maintain there is more to the account shift than trendy cronyism. Some argue Egg has gradually gone stale at HHCL. "It's perceived as being a bit niche, and a bit odd," one observer says, arguing that Egg's winning quirkiness has become formulaic. "Egg didn't catch people's imagination the way it had promised to. They didn't deliver on the intent of making people look at finances in a different way."

HHCL has traditionally played the odd, niche advertising card very well. From Tango to the AA, it has run lengthy campaigns off such a strategy. But while much of HHCL's work has polarised opinion, Mother can point to characters such as ITV Digital's Al and Monkey as evidence that its strategies can appeal to a broader public.