Banc wins Front Row push

Front Row, the pay per view film operator owned by NTL and Telewest, has appointed Banc to create a £1.5m campaign to relaunch the service.

Banc was appointed without a pitch by Front Row head of marketing Simon Hunt who had worked with the agency when he was marketer at Bell Cable Media. The previous incumbent was Raw, which ran campaigns spanning press, TV and direct marketing.

The new ad push will relaunch Front Row’s “barker channels”- the promotional channels on NTL and Telewest which flag-up forthcoming pay-per-view films. The on-screen graphics are being redesigned by English & Pockett.

Front Row marketing communications manager Gabrielle Flannery says the channels are currently too “static” and will be made more exciting: “The relaunch aims to improve on-screen presentation and enhance the experience of tuning in to the ‘barker channels’. The whole on-screen look is going to be up-graded and made less repetitive.”

In December, Front Row will kick off the relaunch TV campaign through cable channels with a £150,000 spend that month. Front Row is trying to persuade its owners to increase its annual ad budget.

Flannery claims that 25 per cent of NTL and Telewest’s 3 million customers watch a film each month. This results in a turnover of £2.3m a month.

However, NTL has revealed losses of £25m in 1999 on its investment in Front Row, its sports channel British Eurosport and ITN interactive service.