M&C Saatchi wins BOL global task

BOL, the e-commerce arm of German publishing company Bertelsmann, has appointed M&C Saatchi to its global account after a four-way pitch which involved Bartle Bogle Hegarty, BMP DDB and Mustoe Merriman Herring Levy.

The account is worth an estimated &£6m in the UK but some sources say it could be worth up to &£10m as BOL is diversifying out of the UK and Germany into France, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland.

M&C sister agency Walker Media will handle media planning and buying for the UK while M&C Saatchi Direct will handle all direct marketing activity.

Alexander Broich, managing director for BOL in the UK, says: “Together with our online agency partners we are now in a position to take on the market. We are ready to take BOL to the next level as one of the major players in the UK and global online market.”

From this autumn, BOL will add music to its online sale of books.

Bertelsmann is the world’s third largest media company with annual sales of approximately DM28bn (&£10bn). The company has interests in magazine and newspaper publishing, television, film, radio and the Internet.

Bertelsmann owns a 50 per cent stake of the US online bookstore barnesandnoble.com.