Tele2 puts £20m task up for pitch

Swedish telecommunications company Tele2, which entered the UK market in October, is trawling media agencies to handle its estimated £20m UK planning and buying media business.

The company, which also exists in the French, Eastern European and Scandinavian markets, has shortlisted four unnamed agencies. The pitches are expected to take place early next week.

The incumbent Zed Media is also thought to be repitching for the business. Tele2’s UK managing director Bill Butler is overseeing the review.

The creative work for the account, which is generated overseas, is not believed to be part of the pitch. Insiders say that the telecoms company will continue to adapt its advertising campaigns to the UK market.

Its recent television and press campaign took on BT with a cut-price service claiming to be up to 80 per cent cheaper than its rival.

The company will also exploit “carrier pre-selection”, a service forced on BT by the industry regulator, which allows customers to switch to rival telecoms operators without having to dial extra numbers or buy special boxes. One of the biggest rivals to BT using this service is One.Tel, owned by Centrica.

Carphone Warehouse, Sainsbury’s and Tesco have also entered the cut-throat, cut-price landline telecoms market.