Barraclough Hall nets £2m BT Web brief

The low-cost, Web-based phone company Quip has appointed Barraclough Hall Woolston Gray to its &£2m launch advertising campaign.

The company, which is 49 per cent owned by BT, will this week launch a press, poster, radio and direct mail campaign with the strapline: “Great value phone calls.” This will be dropped when the brand name has been established. Organic London created the Internet campaign.

The advertising runs until the end of April in London, followed by bursts in Leeds, Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol and Cardiff.

Quip intends to sign affinity deals with partner companies to offer tie-ins relevant to customers’ calls, for instance US flight deals for customers who regularly call that country.

The first affinity deal is with Internet service provider Line One, and will offer free Internet access minutes when money is spent through Quip. Three other deals will be announced this month.

Quip is a joint venture between BT, Unisys and the Bank of Scotland. It claims its low-cost local, national and international phone calls over the Internet are a third cheaper than rivals.

Simon Lubin, formerly head of marketing for BT Conferences and head of marketing campaigns for BTCellnet, has been appointed as marketing director for Quip.

He joins Quip founder and chief executive Steve Gandy, former head of BT conferences, and commercial director William Dangerfield, the man responsible for creating BT’s 1471 service.

Marketing manager Gim Mui Ng joins from Microsoft UK, and sales director Gordon Glahom from telco Primus.