Proximity lands £12m Britannia

Britannia Music Company has appointed Proximity to handle the £12m relaunch of its business.

Marketing director Adam Tuson and commercial director Collette Nugent oversaw the initial stages of the pitch. Britannia Music managing director Ford Ennals, who was appointed in July from Lloyds TSB where he was director of group customer management, made the final decision.

Proximity is an integrated agency – owned by Omnicom subsidiary Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO – mainly known for its direct marketing work and was recently appointed to develop a campaign targeting students for BBC TV Licensing. It also handles DM for Sainsbury’s Freeform range.

The review was handled by Haystack Group. Previously the company used a number of different marketing agencies but had no lead advertising agency.

Tuson says that Proximity will be working on both advertising and direct marketing. Britannia spent £5m on advertising last year. The company called the review after appointing Wolff Olins to develop a new brand positioning earlier this year for the Universal Music-owned retailer (MW September 12). He would not confirm speculation that MediaCom has won the planning and buying account. The account was previously split between Carat and MediaVest Manchester.

Britannia is battling with declining membership and faces increased competition from online retailers such as Amazon as well as supermarkets such as Tesco, which are expanding their music sections. Britannia operates as a club, selling products through mail order, online and over the telephone.

The company wants to promote the fact that it offers not only music but feature films on DVD and VHS. Britannia’s membership is believed to have slid to 1.5 million members from a peak of 2 million. It used to sponsor the Brit Awards but ended the relationship in 1998.