ScottishPower picks agency for TV drive

ScottishPower Energy Supplies is about to appoint an advertising agency for its 4m above-the-line account, covering TV work.

It is believed that the shortlist has been narrowed from five agen-cies, based in Scotland and Man-chester, which included Faulds and the Leith Agency.

The successful agency is likely to retain the account until dere-gulation of the electricity companies in 1998, when advertising spend should increase dramatically.

In the past, ScottishPower Ener-gy Supplies, which sells electricity to the domestic consumer, has used agencies on a project-by-project basis.

Most recently, Manchester agency MAP won the business for a 1m project. Ironically, the agency pitched against Faulds, as well as the Leith Agency and the Morgan Partnership.

Both ScottishPower and Faulds refuse to comment on the story but sources suggest that Faulds will announce the appointment next week.

In a separate development, Scot-tish Telecom, a division of Scottish- Power, looks likely to use incumbent agency Faulds for a new TV cam-paign. The spend on this initiative is about 500,000.

Faulds is the agency for Scottish- Power Retail, the electrical retailer. It also handles the Scottish Nuclear and Scottish Telecom accounts.

Navigator Responsive Advert-ising, also based in Edinburgh, handles below-the-line advertising for ScottishPower Energy Supply.