AMV O2 triumph as BT mulls £150m media review
Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO (AMV.BBDO) is working on the advertising for the rebranding of BT Cellnet as O2, despite speculation that it faced a review.
However, it is unclear whether Zenith and the Allmond Partnership – which are media buyers for BT Cellnet in the UK – will work on the rebranding, as holding company BT Wireless is considering reviewing its media buying accounts across Europe, which together are worth &£150m.
On Monday, BT Wireless, the mobile business division of BT, announced that its new consumer brand, devised by agency Lambie-Nairn, would be O2. The brand will be introduced next spring, following the split of BT Wireless from BT planned for later this year. BT Wireless will then be renamed as mm O2.
From next spring, the O2 brand will also apply to BT Wireless’s other network businesses, including Viag in Germany, Telfont in the Netherlands, Esat Digifone in the Republic of Ireland and Manx Telecom of the Isle of Man. BT Wireless’s mobile services brand Genie will also be rebranded using O2.
BT Wireless vice-president of marketing Will Harris says: “We are going to use AMV.BBDO, it is already working on O2.”
But Harris, who is in the process of consulting different markets on their agency arrangements, refused to say whether AMV.BBDO’s work would be confined to the UK market. However, he is considering a review of media arrangements, with a view to establishing a pan-European buying operation.
