O&M jettisons £10m Hoover for Indesit task

Ogilvy & Mather has dropped its £10m domestic appliance pan-European account with Hoover to take on another, the Merloni-owned washing machine and dishwasher brand Indesit.

Ogilvy & Mather has dropped its £10m domestic appliance pan-European account with Hoover to take on another, the Merloni-owned washing machine and dishwasher brand Indesit.

O&M resigned the Hoover account this week after hearing it had won a competitive pitch for the Indesit business.

Indesit was thought to have been handed to Leo Burnett in a £40m pan-European centralisation of the Merloni business, which also includes the Ariston brand. However, Burnett has not heard anything from its Italian headquarters, which was responsible for winning the Merloni account, since reports of the centralisation last November.

Indesit has now been handed to O&M in Europe, with Burnett looking after Ariston. Indesit was not available for comment.

O&M has resigned the Hoover business after three years on the account following a competitive pitch in October 1997 against J Walter Thompson and Young & Rubicam. It eventually beat stablemate JWT in a final head-on pitch for the business.

Since its win, Hoover has increased its European spend from £5m to £10m. The company spent £3.3m on advertising in the UK last year.