Lansdown in line for 10m CNN business

Lansdown Conquest is tipped to win the pan-European account for cable news station Cable News Network (CNN) understood to be worth 10m.

Lansdown held off competition from four agencies, which are thought to have included M&C Saatchi. Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO is understood to have declined to pitch.

Lansdown will have to develop work that has a distinctive European feel. Over the past 12 months the global cable station has been developing four distinct strands of regional programming that cover Asia, the US, Latin America and Europe.

The work is expected to span press, poster and television.

The station now claims 80 per cent of its content on CNN International, which covers all the network’s programming outside the US, is generated specifically for an international audience and is distinct from its US material.

Chris Cramer, vice-president and managing editor of CNN International, says: “CNN International is aggressively regionalising its programming to give it a more local feel for viewers, whether they are in Europe, Asia, or Latin America.”