Share of 50m IBM win boosts Tequila Worldwide

Direct marketing giant Tequila Worldwide has propped up its ailing parent, the GGT advertising group, with a large slice of an $80m (50m) IBM win.

Tequila Worldwide, which owns Tequila Option One in the UK, has set up a joint venture global company with US direct marketing agency Barry Blau.

The company is being called Blau Tequila, and the IBM direct marketing business is its first win.

Earlier this week IBM announced it had consolidated its global direct marketing business from nearly 30 agencies into just four. The winners were Ogilvy One Worldwide, Wunderman Cato Johnson, Strategic Interactive Group and Barry Blau.

However, Blau has no representation outside the United States, so Blau Tequila will handle the direct marketing for PC and business servicing in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It is understood the business could be worth up to $80m out of the total of $700m (430m) which IBM spends worldwide below the line.

Tequila Option One chairman Tom Wass says Blau Tequila will tout for other business in the blue-chip hi-tech sector. “We are aiming to have three or four clients,” he says, adding that the group has worked on Hewlett-Packard and Apple business in the past.