Grey loses 20m global SAS brief

Scandinavian Airline System (SAS) is reviewing its 20m global advertising account out of Grey after five years with the agency.

The airline, which is part of the Star Alliance, a five-strong group of flag-carrying airlines, will consider new agencies or may put its business with one of Star’s agencies. Young & Rubicam handles the Star Alliance account in Europe.

A spokesman for the company says: “We have been with Grey for five years and after unveiling our new identity we feel it is right to do the review now.

“We will be doing an evaluation in the forthcoming months. Putting the advertising spend with other members of the alliance is one of the things under consideration.”

The Star Alliance is led by United Airlines, Lufthansa, Alitalia, Varig and Thai Airways, and was the first airline alliance to forge a group identity.

It was followed by the British Airways and American Airlines-led alliance, OneWorld, which launched its first branding campaign last month.

SAS has just undertaken an overhaul of its corporate identity, replacing the old logo, which was a combination of the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian national flags, with a simple blue triangle.