FCB snaps up £5m Olympus account

Olympus has handed its &£5m pan-European advertising account to FCB after a three-way pitch.

The account will be handled by FCB Deutschland, which pitched against UK incumbent Lowe Lintas and the French office of DDB Needham. Current European incumbent Y&R did not make the final pitch.

The &£2m UK-specific account was not up for review and remains with Lowe Lintas. The agency, has been the Olympus UK incumbent for seven years and produced the recent TV ad with the strapline: “So sharp it hurts”, featuring Joan Collins.

FCB, formerly known as Wilkens, held the Olympus account in Germany for 13 years, from 1979 to 1992. The agency will be responsible for the entire European consumer product account, developing a strategic plan and a creative campaign to be implemented across Europe. A pan-European digital campaign is planned for spring 2001.

Hans Thiele, head of Olympus Europa’s communication division, says Olympus considers it important to present an integrated corporate image in the European market.

Lowe also developed an international media campaign which stressed the problems of photographers covering issues such as war and famine with the strapline “Should you be using corpses to get a great composition, anyway?”.