Virgin consortium calls pitch for 5m Eurostar

Eurostar’s new owner London & Continental Railways is understood to have invited agencies to pitch for the 5m account (Register-MEAL) held since launch by Young & Rubicam.

Eurostar is owned by European Passenger Services, the British end of the Channel tunnel rail link, which operates a passenger-only service from London to Paris and Brussels.

London & Contintental Railways won the 2.7bn contract to build the Channel Tunnel high-speed rail link to London and with it Eurostar last week.

Although L&CR will take charge of Eurostar at the start of next month at the earliest, it is understood to have called a pitch already.

One of the six companies which make up L&CR is Virgin, which has already said it will alter fare structures and introduce airline-style marketing to the service.

Eurostar advertising has been criticised for lacking clarity. Last year a survey found that few consumers were able to identify the difference between Eurostar and Eurotunnel, which runs the Le Shuttle car service.

This is despite millions of pounds being spent on advertising campaigns by Eurostar and Eurotunnel through Y&R and BMP DDB respectively.

Those agencies which have been invited to talk to L&CR about the business are understood to in clude Bates Dorland, Bartle Bogle Hegarty, St Luke’s, GGT, Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe as well as Y&R.

It is not certain that all the agencies have accepted the invitation.